First PVMN service project of 2011

The West Virginia Garlic Mustard Challenge is coming to Yankauer Nature Preserve on Saturday May 7 from 10 a.m.-12 noon! It is sponsored by PVMN and all members are encouraged to be there! There’s certainly plenty of garlic mustard to pull and it’s always more fun to have lots of volunteers helping. Bring your family and friends even if you can only stay for an hour.

This is our first PVMN sponsored service project for the year. Others are the Mile A Minute Eradication effort at Flowing Springs Park on Saturday June 4 and service projects at Cacapon State Park and Yankauer Nature Preserve later this year.

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The Garlic Mustard Challenge is a cooperative effort by the Monongahela National Forest, the Potomac Highlands Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Area, and the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area. This is the third year of the Garlic Mustard Challenge. The state goal for 2011 is pulling up 20,000 pounds of garlic mustard!

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Garlic mustard is one of West Virginia’s most invasive plant species. It out competes native plants by hogging all the light, moisture, nutrients, soil and space. Garlic mustard also deprives wildlife, such as the rare West Virginia white butterfly, of food sources that are instrumental to their survival. Garlic mustard likes the moist, shaded soil of floodplains, forests, roadsides and forest openings. Areas that have been disturbed are even more vulnerable to invasion.

We look forward to your help on May 4!

Ellen, Wanda, Krystal, and Nancy