This week (Feb. 22-27) is National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week across the country. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this campaign that focuses on “preserving our natural heritage from the ravages of weeds.” Land managers, aquatic specialists, scientists, educators and public policy officials are gathering in Washington D.C. for a series of meetings on educating our federal policy makers and elected officials about the devastating impact of invasive weeds on the environment and economy.
Invasive weeds cost federal, state and local governments an estimated 125 billion dollars annually. A statistic that is rising quickly. Once established in a natural area, invasive species snowball into loss of bio-diversity. The negative effect on the native flora, fauna and aesthetics is most alarming to naturalists. Unfortunatly, the majority of invasive weeds occur on private lands where goverment has no control. So we all must do our part.
In the Upper Midwest our landscape has been highly altered due to aggressive and invasive plant species. One of the most destructive has been Garlic Mustard. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) came to the area 10-15 years ago and has since spread into our woodlands choking out our native more conservative species. Late winter and early spring are the optimum times of year to control this species. You can learn more about invasive species on this website here: http://www.prairieworksinc.com/services/invasive-species-removal/
A great video was recently produced about Garlic Mustard. View it here:Garlic Mustard 101
http://www.ipaw.org/ Invasive Plant Association of Wisconsin
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/invasiveplants/ Chicago Botanic Garden Information
