The birds and wild animals will appreciate them in their original locations.

I would not move them close to cultivated bushes due to the possibility of virus transmission.

Yes, wild brambles are simply put, a part of the woodland scene. Yet we are in no danger of somehow losing them from our wild places. Do as ye wishes-if they're in the way, cut them down, etc. They'll be back!

+oM

I cut the brambles in to foot long pieces and when I get to where it comes out of the ground I pull it up. Hedge clippers work better than loppers on bramble vines. I let everything stay about where it is to breakdown. Trips to and from the compost pile can be time consuming unless you're on a small lot. No sense spreading it all over by introducing the ripe berries to the compost pile in a different location. I'm on ten acres and consider the whole place a compost pile. Trimmings don't heat up to kill seeds, but I throw the trimmings to the closest place where they won't reseed or root. That's usually under a tree or shrub where there isn't anything anyway. It all breaks down rather soon.
Gardening in the woods is different than gardening on a city lot.
Mike

This is about what I normally do.

I grow regular blackberry and raspberry. It is said that we should remove the wild ones within close distance of the cultivated. But I was just not sure if there is any salvage value of the wild brambles. I tried the wild berries and they are small. Tastes can be acceptable. But the thorns are not good.

My entire acreage was a huge bramble patch (with nettle in the clearings and rides). I only clear it when I have something to put in place otherwise it makes a rather good bird cover. I imagine I will be removing bramble forever.

I chop it back as hard as I can then use a brushcutter with a mulching head to mash up the roots.

I get at Himalayan Blackberry crowns with a pole pruner. I cut the runners at the crown and then pull them out. The crown remains and is easily pulled up from there. I think of it as economy of motion. It goes fast.
Mike

If you want to replace a thorny wild Blackberry bush with a thornless native Raspberry bush, remove the old and establish the new as quickly as possible. When the new spreads its roots and shades the ground, it'll be so much tougher for the old to make a comeback.

That won't work where I live.

Where do you live?
Mike

Houston. You?

Seattle, much different climate than Houston. Himalayan Blackberry is very vigorous here. Think Kudzu with thorns. Birds love the berries and spread seeds everywhere. There's hardly a garden here without a few young berry sprouts.
Mike

Mike, in your opinion, is or are there any redeeming qualities to the H, blackberry? Fruits edible, even if other better ones exist? Wildlife value _I suppose that's a no-brainer in that it must be wildlife spreading the seeds about. Just curious as we, and especially one of my sons who lives south of me, have this plant also.

+oM

We have two introduced species of blackberry. Rubus procerus from Eurasia and Rubus laciniatus from Europe. Both have delicious berries and wicked spines, even on the leaves. Rubus laciniatus has the best berries in most people's opinion. I grew the thornless variety for awhile, called a chimera, but the seedlings came up all over with thorns so I removed them.
Raccoons, opossums, and I suppose, rats use them for cover. In elementary school my friends and I made tunnels and crawled between the crowns and made camps in larges patches of the berries. Birds spread the seeds everywhere. They clamber from 8 to 15 ft. tall, sometimes taller if they have something to hook onto. Both can grow in a surprising amount of shade. I'll add a picture later.
Mike

Thanks much. Especially in the case of my son, who lives just a bit north of Milwaukee in a place called Cedarburg, there are lots of brambles, including many in quite shady areas, with exceptionally heavy substance, large canes, large thorns......everything about them seems oversized. I've been thinking these are Himalayans but obviously, I don't know my brambles that well! Sure are some imposing things.

+oM