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Garlic Mustard Challenge!
"West Virginia: Wild and Weed-Free"
2013 – The 5th Annual Garlic Mustard Challenge
Are you looking for an opportunity to get the family outside for a day of fun? Then look no further than the 2013 Garlic Mustard Challenge! The GMC is a series of events that seeks to provide your family with a day of free, outdoor fun while working to protect the beautiful public lands that we all love. This year, our goal is even bigger! We want to remove 50,000 pounds of garlic mustard to help protect our native forests, wildflowers, and wildlife.
Garlic Mustard is trouble. It is a particularly nasty, non-native invasive species that thrives in partial shade and has no trouble growing in forest understories. Garlic mustard can quickly take over an area crowding out our native plants including trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, ramps, and our beautiful, often vulnerable, native orchids. Garlic mustard even produces chemicals that can keep our native plants from being able to grow!
Garlic mustard also does a number on two rare butterfly species. The mustard white butterfly and the West Virginia white butterfly sometimes mistakenly lay their eggs on garlic mustard instead of their native host plants. The results are disastrous. The eggs hatch, but the caterpillars die before they can form a chrysalis.
Only an army of volunteers can help get rid of this invasive species! Please join us for the 2013 Garlic Mustard Challenge and together we can stop the spread of one of the most invasive species found in our states. Get a group of friends and join one of our organized pulls. Visit our Calendar of Events for a full list of our pulls.
The Garlic Mustard Challenge is brought to you by the Monongahela National Forest, Appalachian Forest Heritage Area, and the Potomac Highlands Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Area.
Calendar of Events: Tennessee and West Virginia
Tennessee - All Pulls begin at 9:00 a.m.
Calling all volunteers! Now is the time for all lovers of “The Roan” to pitch in to help battle the terrible invaders on her doorstep. We’re going to concentrate on pulling garlic mustard along the Highway 143 roadside and inside the state park. This event will follow on the heels of our very successful 2012 garlic mustard pull to keep the pressure on and try to rid the mountain of this terrible plant.
Volunteers will only need to bring their personal gear (good footwear, layered clothes, water, lunch, hat, gloves, etc.). Bags for disposing of the garlic mustard will be provided.
Information on nearby lodging at Roan Mountain State Park can be found here. Volunteers should meet at the Roan Mountain State Park Conference Center.
For More Information Contact: Lisa Huff, Tennessee Natural Areas Program, Lisa.Huff@tn.gov
- March 23rd - Roan Mountain State Park and on Roan Mountain
- April 20th - Roan Mountain State Park and on Roan Mountain
West Virginia – All pulls begin are from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (see flyer)
- April 20th-Greenbrier State Forest
- April 25th- Fernow Experimental Forest
- April 27th - Seneca Rocks Discovery Center
- April 27th - Greenbrier State Forest
- May 11th-12th—Blue Bend Campground*
- May 18th - Pocahontas 4-H Camp
*This event will offer free camping in exchange for your hard work and dedication!