Stimulus funding drives buckthorn removal at Minute Man NHP
The embattled farmers who worked these fields centuries ago, and made this land famous with a shot heard ’round the world, struggled to survive harsh winters and years of poor crops. But they didn’t have to contend with the common buckthorn.
An invasive species brought from Europe decades after the country was born, the tenacious buckthorn is the nemesis of Steven Surprise, a 15-year-old from Billerica, and the other young workers clearing fields this summer in the Minute Man National Historical Park.
As the group works to bring the landscape closer to its state in Revolutionary times — mostly open fields, filled with livestock and crops — they have the modern conveniences of chainsaws and loppers. But they still have scars from the buckthorn, a stubborn plant that resists cutting.
“The heat and the thorns are tough because sometimes they’re right where we need to be,’’ Surprise said.