From the River Valley News, by Jerry Davis
It has been difficult to find morels in some woodland areas this spring because native herbs have been crowded out by a thick growth of an invasive, exotic biennial plant: garlic mustard. One can clearly imagine what many of our forests and fields will look like a few years from now if this alien species and several other invasive plants are not attacked by landowners using any means possible to stop their spread.
"The best answer to controlling garlic mustard is to get more public awareness of what to watch for, what the plant looks like and how we can stop it," said S. Kelly Kearns, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources plant specialist.
Unfortunately, there aren't any state or federal programs to provide landowners with grants to manage garlic mustard, according to Kearns.
"We'd love to have something like that, but it would take millions and millions of dollars," Kearns said. "We haven't gotten a penny from the Legislature to work on controlling terrestrial plants. There are other programs to control some invasive species, but those are only for brush management."
Multiflora rose, autumn olive, buckthorn and prickly ash can sometimes be removed from forests with the aid of timber stand improvement grants. These plants are perennial, shrubby species, often spread by birds eating seed-containing fruit on neighboring properties.
If you've noticed garlic mustard, it has most likely been in disturbed woods, places where logging has occurred, all-terrain vehicles travel, hiking trails occur or other forestry operations.
"Wildlife probably spreads it, too. Animals, such as squirrels, deer and even water might carry the seeds," Kearns said. "If it shows up at a campsite, there is little doubt how it got there."
We are asked to clean boats before moving them from one lake or river to another. Maybe we should be cleaning ATVs, camping trailers and bikes as well as logging equipment.
Garlic mustard is, as the name suggests, a member of the mustard plant family. When leaves and stems are crushed and smelled, a strong scent of garlic or onion is present. This plant is a biennial, producing a rosette of leaves, near ground level the first year, and bolting into a flower stalk the second year. After the seeds are produced in elongated capsules, the plant dies.
Most second-year plants are one to four feet tall. The flowers are small and white, while the leaves have coarsely-toothed margins. This is the only white-flowered woodland plant this tall that appears in late May and early June.
Garlic mustard was probably brought to the United States by early settlers who used it for cooking and medicinal purposes.
Even though garlic mustard is most noticed in forests, it does grow in full sun along roadsides and also in fields. Plants can be controlled by pulling them, spraying them with herbicides and torching them.
"A propane torch will kill the seedlings by passing a flame over them," Kearns said. "There are a lot of seeds in the soil seed bank, so areas have to be treated a number of times, regardless of the control methods used."
These methods might work for small areas or where populations are just beginning to become established, but large woodlands covered with garlic mustard may be a lost cause without a major effort, expense and persistence.
June is invasive species awareness month in Wisconsin. Many county field trips and demonstrations are planned, including several in La Crosse County, and are listed on the Web site, www.invasivespecies.wi.gov/awareness.
