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U.S. Forest Service


Chippewa National Forest Partners with Youth to Invade the Invasive!

By Melissa Rickers on Jul 7, 2010

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Due to the local infestation of garlic mustard, Chippewa National Forest staff teamed up with local youth to help with the eradication of this plant

Due to the local infestation of garlic mustard, Chippewa National Forest staff teamed up with local youth to help with the eradication of this plant. On a cool spring day in May, Wildlife Biologist Jim Gallagher, forest technician Rob Schneider and seven students from the Rabideau Conservation Corp and their staff went to work to help in the fight against garlic mustard.

The plan was to install a black plastic barrier on an infestation of garlic mustard. The method used for installing the plastic barrier has never been tried before on the Chippewa. The area they worked on was on Chippewa National Forest land near Onigum, Minnesota and affects both Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) tribal lands and national forest land. The infested site, along a power line corridor, was first cleared of woody vegetation and debris. Then, the plastic was unrolled and staked to the ground over a portion of the garlic mustard infestation. "We hope that the black plastic, combined with the summer sun will create enough heat to kill the bank of garlic mustard seeds that exists on this infestation," said Gallagher. "This method would be a lot less labor intensive that our usual hand pulling of garlic mustard." The key to successful eradication of garlic mustard is to remove the blooming plants before they go to seed from April through June and kill the first year plants so they will not bloom next spring. The process is long-term needing yearly maintenance as the seeds are viable for up to seven years.

Garlic mustard is a biennial herb of the mustard family. It is highly invasive in undisturbed forest

communities. It directly threatens many native species of the forest floor and inhibits reproduction

of forest trees.

The group worked long and hard with a feeling of accomplishment in invading the invasive!