Hm…you bring an interesting perspective.
I very much would like to never see any privet again in this area. Along with mimosa, tree of heaven, and kudzu. If you can’t tell already I’m from the Southeastern US, haha.
It is an uphill “battle” and yeah, doubtful I could win in actually removing all these plants for good. It’s frustrating to see how they destroy native plants that are useful and important to me and the creatures around me. I do think they have an overall negative impact on the biodiversity of the area, but I didn’t know about its medicinal uses. It’s easy to get into that mindset that it’s entirely negative. But you’re right, I’ve gotta try and see it holistically.
My main gripe with Privet in particular is that it’s growing in the middle of other plants. I’ve got a Jerusalem artichoke, fig bush, and scuppernong bush it’s trying to crowd out. I’d be worried about altering the soil composition for the sake of the plants that are already there that I’m trying to save.
It seems that its favorite place to grow is in disturbed forest, but it’s a very opportunistic plant and will grow outside of that, including in other plants. Sigh
Edit: I didn’t mention explicitly that it’s an invasive introduced to the area along with the other plants I mentioned. Just wanted to clarify that.
Do you think covering a stump that keeps trying to resprout would do the trick? There’s one growing right beside a rose bush that keeps trying to crowd it out. Would it hurt the rose bush to cover it?