Students battle botanical bully in Troy’s Eldon Russell Park

Students battle botanical bully in Troy’s Eldon Russell Park
This week students in our Environmental Science class and Conservation Club traveled to Eldon Russell Park in Troy Township to help in the effort to eradicate garlic mustard, an invasive and persistent non-native plant that threatens the natural ecosystem.

This was the second year in a row that our students have helped naturalists of the Geauga Park District in their ongoing battle against the botanical bully. Originally introduced from Europe as a food plant, garlic mustard is one of very few non-native plants to be able to successfully invade forest understories, greatly reducing the diversity of all species.

According to science teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Ford, who organized the excursion, our efforts to restore the ecosystem are making a difference.

"We walked past the area we cleared last year and didn't see a single garlic mustard plant there," she said.