Thanks to the generous help of a number of volunteers this spring, we were able to greatly reduce the spread and potentially destructive impact of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) growing at the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust’s Starcliff Nature Reserve in King Township. In April, we started this year’s efforts enjoying pesto with some of our harvest–of sorts. In May, we continued our efforts in three other locations. In June we were supposed to move on to other activities, but discovering more garlic mustard than previously found growing on the 7.2 hectare property changed that! We were blessed at the public event in mid-June with four of the 10 volunteers–plus Leo, of course!–being between 17-months- and 12-years-old but, well, the pace of our “work” was much slower. With well-appreciated help from Jocelyn Paas, a life sciences teacher, it turned into an informal interpretive hike. More engaging, I think, for the little ones! (It’s always a delight to wander in nature with inquisitive children, especially when three of four of them were first-generation Canadians.) We pulled three garlic mustard plants growing isolated–not in one to two more years, though, if left to seed–in three locations. Needing to remove the patch of soon-to-seed garlic mustard that we couldn’t remove then, Ian Wan and Philip Oyedeji kindly helped yesterday afternoon with pulling and cutting the rest of the ecosystem-destroying-invader.

We now move on to controlling the spread of common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) and a few other invasive plants; trail maintenance; building a mobile boardwalk with assistance from the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Ontario Stewardship Rangers; repairing and replacing the bird nesting boxes; wild apple picking (and making apple sauce?!); bird monitoring; and again next spring, pulling garlic mustard!

If our mission’s to be fully accomplished, we’ll control the growth of garlic mustard vigilantly for another four years and then monitor regularly. And following then, hopefully only have to pull it occasionally, if ever. As I wrote above, “Mission Accomplished–for Now!” Such is stewardship!