Saturday, April 16

9am – 11am

Scout Cabin, Fairbanks Road

On Saturday, April 16 the Olmsted Society hosted “The Garlic Mustard Challenge”, a fun community service project to help control the spread of garlic mustard in Riverside. FLOS partnered with the Northeast Illinois Invasive Plant Partnership (NIIPP) for this event.

Our Great Garlic Mustard Pull/Challenge at the Scout Cabin on Saturday April 16th was a success. First it was a success because we found very little garlic mustard growing, thanks to the efforts of a prior work day and the Eagle Scouts pulling garlic mustard around the Scout Cabin. We showed our volunteers a video about identifying the invasive garlic mustard plant and had an actual plant for them to see. Then we set out to find garlic mustard and to pick up any trash we found. We found more trash than garlic mustard, but we did collect a gallon of the weed.

Garlic mustard is an invasive plant that was brought over to the United States by European settlers as an herb. Unfortunately, with none of its native competitors present, garlic mustard has spread virtually unchecked across the county and can be found in more than 30 states as well as parts of Canada. Not only do these invasive weeds choke out native wildflowers, out-competing them for space and sunlight, but they also excrete chemicals through their roots further preventing wildflower growth.

Sapling growth is similarly limited by monocultures of garlic mustard. Garlic mustard and other invasive species poses a serious threat to the biodiversity and overall quality of beloved natural areas. Thanks to all for braving the weather to join us for this event!

Watch this 14 minute video to learn how to identify & control this invasive plant which is so damaging to our forest ecosystems:

See what happened at the Great Garlic Mustard Challenge on April 16th!