Garlic Mustard Pickin’ Party, May 6, 9:00 to noon.
Join SEGG, Weed Out! Racine, Wild Ones, and Discover Racine for an Earth Day event! We will be pulling and bagging garlic mustard from the Colonial Park floodplain, as part of a larger restoration project. Gather with us on May 6, just past the Root River Steelhead Facility. You will go with a trained crew chief across the bridge into Colonial Park, where we will pull and bag the garlic mustard. It’s easy to identify and pull. It’s a family event! kids can pull, too. We will provide gloves and tools, though you can bring your own if you prefer. Please dress for the weather; long pants and close-toed shoes are recommended. At noon, we’ll enjoy eclectic Celtic music from the Garlic Mustard Pickers band, and lunch will be served.
This event is part of a larger restoration project. Hundreds of dying ash trees will be logged out next winter (the ground did not freeze hard enough to permit logging this winter), and the city’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department (PRCS) will be planting many replacement hardwood trees. Weed Out! Racine is funding a management strategy for the (invasive) reed canary grass in the floodplain. We will plant over 250 small trees ? oaks from the Argosy Foundation, and other hardwoods from the Racine and Kenosha County Land Conservation Programs. We also have funds to seed the area with a mix of woodland grasses, sedges and forbs when the other work is complete. This restoration will be successful if we get the garlic mustard out!