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Like the title says, we are pulling the garlic mustard tomorrow morning, May 17 at 10 a.m. at Woodland Park in Monona. Meet at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center (Aldo Leopold Nature Center - Home) large parking lot or just head up to the top of the hill and look for the evil weed (not that evil weed). In an hour or so we will be able to make a dent in what is a much smaller infestation than even last year.
The weather is supposed to be pretty decent in the morning, but we'll be pulling baring a downpour.
If you are really motivated you can join the ALNC work group at 9 a.m. to yank some weeds over there as well.
WDNR page on Garlic Mustard
Just wanted to report how succesful this can be: two years ago I spent a couple hours pulling GM in the frost woods beach park, last year was only bit better, but yesterday morning it took me 5 minutes as there was just a single handful of GM stalks to be found. My reward for this effort was the spring display of the red and white trillium and the sight of jack-in-the-pulpits and the bright green ferns unrolling themselves for the summer. Two years ago all of these were in danger of being crowded out by the GM. A little effort can go a long way.
ReplyDeleteIt can go a long way in a confined area, but in a large woodland it takes an army of people each and every year to keep it under control and complete eradication will not happen. This is one of the most serious ecological invasive threats we have, so we need to be clear that the manual effort required is not achieveable on a spatial scale that includes more than our individual yards. The real problem is in large wooded areas that are not, and will not, be controlled by manual methods. Just take a drive in Green County and look into the woodlands. It is heartbreaking. The only answer is biological or chemical control that will be safe and effective, such as the beetles for purple loosestrife. This will take considerable government-funded research.
ReplyDeleteI have to differ with you a little bit. We already have a pretty good idea of what works, we just need to devote the resources to it.
ReplyDeleteWoodland Park is 20 acres. I agree manual pulling alone will not do the trick. However, we have made monumental progress through a sustained three-pronged effort that includes annual prescribed burns, spraying the area with Roundup, and pulling.
We have been burning for about 5 or 6 years, spraying for 2 (3?) and pulling for three. In my observation, the spraying was primary, followed closely by burns and then pulling. Certainly we could never have achieved the success we have just with pulling, but pulling can be an important part to hit areas that the spraying and burning missed.
Didn't mean to say you can't control a particular area with sustained effort - obviously you have. But just one or two years without that effort, and it will come roaring back. And the vast majority of most woodland areas in southern Wisconsin will not receive such care, thus my comments about the ecological disaster this has become. It has completely obliterated the understory plant life in many areas. We need more research effort to combat this on a landscape scale.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of this post and Peter's comment I misunderstand the thrust of what you were saying.
I do think that we can keep it under control in our (Monona) city parks IF we have people willing to be the stewards.
Frankly, Woodland Park still needs a lot more work on other invasives (esp. buckthorn) and on maintenance in general (trails, care of the Indian mounds, getting the wild grasses planted in the front section).
Our Mayor has quite a bit of this stuff on his lot.
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with that?
Is this a "noxious weed" and do we have an ordinance that requires removal of such weeds? I wonder what we could do to better educate Monona folks?
ReplyDelete