e dastardly garlic mustard! Ok fine, I hung out in the pretty woods with some great people, hand-pulling lots of little plants, getting fresh air and sunshine, and making a difference that I could immediately see the result of.Garlic mustard is an exotic shady woodland plant that is highly invasive and posing quite a threat to native plants. We've designed a couple of events to train people in identifying and pulling garlic mustard, with the hopes that they will then return to the sites on
their own to pull more. Last Saturday we went to Pine Bend Bluffs Scientific and Natural Area and had more of an "off the beaten path" experience. We focused our energy on one slope that was pretty well covered in garlic mustard, and it was so gratifying to see the difference at the end of the day!This Saturday we were at the river gorge, which is a truly amazing section of the river right in the middle of the city. After doing a quick orientation and background on garlic mustard, we took people to a slope of the restored oak savanna. This area has had quite a bit o
f attention and work done in it, so it is teeming with a variety of good natives, like this beautiful bloodroot plant.After doing a number on the garlic mustard there, we headed over to the river flats, a large section of floodplain that is sadly carpeted with garlic mustard. Once you learn how to identify a bad plant and then walk into a place that is overgrown with it, it's pretty shocking and kind of overwhelming. Then again, you don't
have to worry so much about pulling the wrong thing - anything different really stands out!When our time was up we had pulled bags and bags of garlic mustard, and yet there was still so much there! Hopefully these wonderful volunteers will be able to get back out there and pull some more before it goes to seed in the next few weeks. It would take a lot more time and a lot more people to pull
all of it. But at the very least I think we helped keep the garlic mustard from spreading and taking over new areas, and that is significant. That gives a little more hope for the good guys, like this super fun jack-in-the-pulpit!
4 comments:
Yeah for you guys! I tell you, these invasive plants can be a nightmare. It is a tough call too to decide when to try to live with them and when they need to be eradicated. but these kind of projects are a neat way to involve folks and have them see the results right away!
Nice! I didn't know that you guys had pitcher plants up there! I don't think I've every actually seen one, at least not in the wild. That's a pretty cool job you got there. ;)
I am glad tp hear there is serious plant pulling being done. Pretend though that I am unsavy at all on native plants. Why is this plant bad and thriving? Just personal curiosity. Apparently, palm trees are not native to LA. They aren't even trees and are I have heard quite unhelpful to our environment.
Holy smokes! I just realized that I called a jack-in-the-pulpit a pitcher plant! Sorry for getting you all excited about it Q! We do have pitcher plants here, but they are mostly in bogs or swamps in northeastern or north-central Minnesota.
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