Date: 8/17/25 6:37 am From: Nagi Aboulenein via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Blackberries?
Hi Kellie -
We have an HOA-owned greenspace adjacent to our subdivision (King City, OR), which, when we first moved here quite a while back, was heavily infested with Himalayan Blackberries.
At the time, the HOA hired a professional company to remove the blackberry bushes. It took them 4 consecutive years of heavy duty chemical application (which I wasn’t very happy with, but unable to do anything about since the HOA contracts were already in place when we moved in) and manual labor. Simply cutting off the above-ground portions doesn’t do much - the bushes grow back with a vengeance. The chemicals that were applied were to prevent that regrowth. And still they had to keep doing it for four years in row!
Good birding!
—
Nagi Aboulenein
> On Sunday, Aug 17, 2025 at 00:14, Kellie Sagen via Tweeters <tweeters...> (mailto:<tweeters...>)> wrote:
> Tweets,
>
> I am super grateful a patch of Himalayan blackberry saved the life of Gary B. Phew! However, I will bad-mouth that wretched plant every chance I get. I’ve been trying to eradicate it from my property for eons. Its thorns cut up my arms, legs, hands and sometimes my face every year no matter what I wear. Maybe a suit of armor would work. I have planted over 1500 natives and yet the Himalayan blackberry outcompetes them all. It refuses to die.
>
> It does attract several species of birds and other wildlife and makes a great cobbler. I have actually seen it for sale locally even though it is on our state’s noxious weed list. According to the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board - It is a notorious invasive species in many countries around the world and costs millions of dollars for both control and in estimated impacts. This species spreads aggressively and has severe negative impacts to native plants, wildlife and livestock.
>
> Birds eat all kinds of berries including the Himalayan blackberry but I hope one day it will not be for sale anymore and will be wiped off the face of the earth, erm Washington and other areas it should not be. We can plant Snowberry, Twinberry, Osoberry, etc in its place to save the next Gary B on a collision course with death!
>
> Okay, lively response over. I think I may have been triggered! Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
>
> Sincerely,
> Kellie Sagen
>
> P.S. Native plants attract native insects which feed native birds. Yay natives!
>
>
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