Impact of Chinese privet and its removal on pollinator diversity and abundance

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) was introduced into the United States in 1852 as an ornamental shrub, and by 1932 was established throughout the Southeast. In the 1990s privet occurred on 2.9 million acres of forest in the Southeast. More specifically, it covered 59 percent of our study area, the Upper Oconee River floodplain in north Georgia in 1999. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of privet removal techniques on various components of the forest community including understory plants and insect pollinators (mainly bees).