Bush Honeysuckle to Bluebells: Restoration at Windolph Landing

Picture a hillside of bush honeysuckle. Yellow and white flowers in the spring, red berries in the summer and fall, a dense thicket of green leaves on plants that can seem more like small trees than bushes. The greenery of the honeysuckle blocks sunlight from reaching the forest floor, so nothing else grows there.

Bush honeysuckle (Photo by John Thomas)

Bush honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) is a group of invasive plant species that was introduced to North America from Europe and Asia. It outcompetes native plants, blocking sunlight and spreading easily. Its berries do not provide as many fats and nutrients as berries from native plants, so when birds eat the bush honeysuckle berries, they don’t get enough nutrients to sustain their long flights during migrations.

In July 2024, Lancaster Conservancy stewardship staff and a group of volunteers who have dubbed themselves “the Misfits” began removing bush honeysuckle from Windolph Landing Nature Preserve, using loppers and Sawzall saws to chop away the tenacious invasives.

“This hillside was covered for decades by all the honeysuckle bush, so there was absolutely nothing growing underneath,” said volunteer Kirk Piper. “I remember at one point joking and saying, ‘I wonder what God-awful stuff we’re going to release when sun hits the ground,’ and we all laughed.”

One challenge of removing invasive plants is that you never know what will begin growing once one invasive species is gone and no longer outcompeting everything else. It could be more invasive plants that sprout up, requiring further management.

Instead, this past spring, the hillside was covered with native Virginia bluebell wildflowers.

“Ecosystems are resilient and they respond to change,” said Conservancy Forester Eric Roper. “At a site like Windolph Landing, by removing competition from invasive shrub species, there was an increase in available light and nutrients at the soil level. Lingering, scattered populations of Virginia bluebells, and a residual seed bed, were able to capitalize on these microsite changes, and the response was noticeable. Where there was once a hillside filled with invasive shrubs, visitors in 2026 were greeted by a carpet of vibrant bluebell blooms.”

Working at the preserve this spring and spotting the bluebells thriving on this hillside was “one of the most humbling days of our lives,” Kirk said.

Volunteer Kirk Piper at Safe Harbor Nature Preserve after a day of planting trees

Kirk has been volunteering with Lancaster Conservancy for about seven years, but he has been hiking the trails on the Conservancy’s preserves for 50 years. He was one of the first volunteers in the group of “Misfits,” which has grown from two to five volunteers who conduct restoration work together every week at various nature preserves.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Kirk says about caring for nature. “Somebody has to do it. There’s work that has to get done, and it’s not going away.”

“Volunteers are a force multiplier. Our dedicated volunteer crews come out and share their time and blood and sweat to help our stewardship team achieve our management objectives. Without the donation of their time and resources, our management strategies would have to shift because it simply would not be feasible to take on all the projects we have underway,” said Eric.

Picture a hill covered in purple-blue flowers blooming around the cut woody stems of invasive honeysuckle bushes. Early spring sunlight reaches the forest floor, filtering through the bare branches of trees above that haven’t yet gotten their leaves. Pollinators buzz among the Virginia bluebells, receiving nutrients from the native wildflowers. It is an ecosystem being restored.

Thank you to the volunteers who make restoration projects like this one possible! If you are interested in volunteering with us, head to lancasterconservancy.org/volunteer.