New Program! The City is initiation a new pilot program called the nomiate your neighborhood buckthorn brush pick-up program. With this program, you and yoru neighbors (minimum of 3 needed to sign up) can apply to have your buckthorn brush picked up after your neighborhood removal event, free of charge. Click here to be taken to the program homepage.

One of the most challenging parts of removing buckthorn is figuring out how to get rid of it. Since brush piles constitute a City code violation, it has to go somewhere.

• Contact your trash hauler to see if you can set up a onetime brush pick-up
• (additional fee will apply)
• Hire a tree service company to chip up brush and dispose of it.
• Bring brush to the city compost site when it has been opened for public drop-off.
• See below to check available dates.
• Haul to a private compost facility. Click here to see a list of Dakota County compost facilities.
• Use as firewood. All outdoor recreational fires in Burnsville require a permit. Click here to see the recreational fire permit application and rules.

City Compost Site

If you have a vehicle in which you can haul buckthorn brush, the City compost pile will be open for public buckthorn brush drop-off during the last weekend of the month in June through September AND every weekend in October, free of charge. The compost facility will be opened between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. ONLY buckthorn brush will be accepted.

The dates the compost pile will be open for free buckthorn brush drop-off in 2013 are:

• Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30    
• Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28
• Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, Sept. 1
• Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29
• Saturday, Oct. 5 and Sunday, Oct. 6
• Saturday, Oct. 12 and Sunday, Oct. 13
• Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20
• Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27

The compost pile is located directly behind Dodge of Burnsville on Pleasant Avenue. Click here to see a google map of the compost pile location. The compost facility is locked and closed to the public except on the dates listed above.

What's next?

The information provided in the links below will walk you through identifying, removing, treating with herbicide and what to do when buckthorn is gone.

Identifying Buckthorn

Removal Method – Pulling

Removal Method- Cutting

Tips on Herbicide Use

Disposal of Buckthorn

Replacement Plantings


Additional resources
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources buckthorn page
Document: Buckthorn:What you should know, what you can do

Still have questions? Contact the City Natural Resources Department at 952-895-4543 or email at e-mail