Week 10 – West Michigan Stays on Top

West Michigan has been able to keep a steady lead in front of its competitors for six straight weeks! That might be a record! West Michigan has pulled 49,528 pounds, followed by Huron Arbor with 35,938, and Headwaters with 26,956 pounds.

Our totals for this week are 182,067 pounds! 

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the Challenge, and we may bump up against the end of the pulling season even sooner. If you’re still pulling, make sure the pods are green and aren’t popping before you start working. And if you’ve already wrapped up your pulling for the season, make sure you’ve reported all your bags to the Garlic Mustard Challenge!

 Great job everyone, and keep pulling! Continue to report your pulls!

“Weight Classes” in next year’s Challenge

As we’re getting towards the end of June, the Garlic Mustard Challenge 2011 is coming to a close and we’re already looking ahead to next year’s Challenge!

Great work is done all across the region and between our Clusters during the Challenge, but it does always seem like the work of some Clusters gets a little more recognition than others. It’s hard to ignore West Michigan and Huron Arbor duking it out for the lead the past four years.

We’re looking for input on an idea we’ve got for our 2012 Challenge. What if we were to split our Clusters into “weight classes” so that there are multiple competitions? Our thought is, it’s like high school wrestling. The 120lb guy and the 200lb guy are both great wrestlers, but you don’t put them up against each other. Plus, it means two Clusters have the chance to win the Cluster Cup!

What do you think? Do you like the idea or not? How would you divide the Clusters (by population, by number of reports, some other way)? Thoughts and suggestions are encouraged – we’d love to create a dialogue about this! Post your reply here.

Week 9 – West Michigan Cluster Remains in Lead, and We’ve Reached Our Goal!

The top three are still the same with West Michigan Cluster remaining in the lead with 48,104 pounds! Huron Arbor Cluster in second with 34,238 pounds, and Headwaters Cluster in third with 25,156 pounds! Will West Michigan remain in the lead and snatch this year’s Cluster Cup from last year’s winner Huron Arbor? Only time will tell!

What’s even better is that we’ve now reached and surpassed our Challenge goal! GREAT WORK! Our goal for this Challenge was to cumulatively pull 150,000 pounds of garlic mustard and as of this week we’ve pulled 161,182 pounds!!

Keep, keep pulling! (one of these days I’m going to make up a little ditty about pulling garlic mustard!) Any ideas?

Also, if there’s any garlic mustard you’re still sitting on, make sure to get it reported before July 8th to have them count in our official reckoning for the the Garlic Mustard Challenge 2011!

Report your pulls, find your Cluster!

Week 8 – West Michigan Cluster Still the Frontrunner

On Week 8 West Michigan Cluster remains in the lead for the fourth straight week with 36,625 pounds! Second place is Huron Arbor Cluster with 28,018 pounds, and rounding out third is the Headwaters Cluster with 22,201 pounds.

Our cumulative total is now at 133,574 pounds! Keep pulling everyone! We’re more than half way to our end date, and SO close to our goal of 150,000 pounds!

Keep reporting your pulls!

Find out which Cluster you’re in!

Oh The Connections You’ll Make

This story proves that you never know the connections you’ll make while out in the field pulling garlic mustard! The following story was sent to us from a volunteer:

“While driving a few miles from my destination of Pentwater, MI, I noticed a stand of garlic mustard near the edge of the forest. I made a mental note to take a garbage bag when I went back that way to run some errands.

The garlic mustard alongside the road

On my next trip to Pentwater, I remembered to put a bag in the car as I left to go to the hardware store. On the way home, I parked the car in order to pull the garlic mustard I had seen the day before. Several cars passed the area as I was working and I wondered if any of the passersbys were curious about what I was doing. After several minutes, a car slowed down as it passed by. Then the car backed up, stopped, and the man in the car said, “It’s really great that you are pulling that garlic mustard.” I told him I was thrilled that someone knew what I was doing. We began a conversation and quickly learned that we live not too far from one another in Ann Arbor and that he and his wife pull garlic mustard in and around their neighborhood. He asked me if I was aware of the Garlic Mustard Challenge. I told him that I had been participating for years. We found much to talk about as he parked his car and joined me in pulling the stand of garlic mustard. Fortunately for us, there was a manageable amount of garlic mustard only near the edge of the forest; I didn’t notice any that had taken hold inside the forest. Together we pulled one 33-gallon bag of garlic mustard.

I’ll keep an eye out for garlic mustard in that area next year, and I suspect my new friend will do the same.“

Here's to making new friends while pulling garlic mustard

Common causes really do bring us together! What a lovely story!

Nature is a Great Classroom For Kids

To all the teachers out there who want to get the students involved but don’t know where to begin, use our blog as a guide! One of our volunteers who was working with first through third graders did just that and it sounds like they had a great learning experience:

“I think the children really saw the importance of what they were doing because they had a bit of background information about garlic mustard. I appreciated the articles that Stewardship Network has posted as I shared that information with the kids. They know: how to identify garlic mustard, why it is considered an invasive species, how to properly dispose of it, when NOT to pick it, and some garlic mustard unique characteristics. Hopefully these kids will spread the word to other people.”

If you don’t want to do it alone, get a group of teachers together, which also means more adults to help handle the kids out in the field!

The learning could even continue after you get back from the field by cooking up some garlic mustard in the classroom! (though I’m not sure how many younger kids have a palate for garlic mustard! It’s worth a try though!)

Bringing the classroom outdoors is a great way for kids to learn about the environment!

Week 7 – West Michigan still in the lead… for now!

The West Michigan Cluster continues to hold the lead with 26,890 lbs!  But look out! The Huron Arbor Cluster is hot on their tail and closing the gap, coming in at 25,611 lbs this week. Will they make a last minute leap to first? Or will they be over run by the Mid-Michigan Cluster? They’ve jumped into third place, more than doubling their total to end Week 7 with 12,757 lbs.

Great work, everyone- keep it up! We’re entering the final sprint before the seed pods get too far along for us to pull. Let’s do as much as we can in the next few weeks to get this stuff out of our natural areas!

The Cluster Map can be found here.

Remember to keep reporting your pulls!

The Power of Collective Action

After looking at our garlic mustard numbers week after week, it’s becoming evident that we’re really making a difference! You, loyal pullers, though it may not seem like a lot as individuals or a Cluster, have been doing your part to help reach our larger goal. Combined, our individual actions are making a difference. This is the idea of collective action.

Collective action is defined as behavior or actions of a group working toward a common goal. And every group is made up of individuals doing their part to help. When we as individuals come together the “strength of the group’s resources, knowledge and efforts is combined to reach a goal shared by all parties.”

Our goal with the Garlic Mustard Challenge is to pull 150,000 pounds of garlic mustard by July 8th. As of last Friday we had collectively pulled 70,008 pounds, and had pulled 22,774 pounds within a week! The West Michigan Cluster alone had pulled 6,900 pounds last week! That’s a lot! Looking at the larger national picture, we begin to notice we’re not the only ones working to eliminate garlic mustard. Other states such as Illinois, Iowa, West Virginia and Maryland are also combating garlic mustard with challenges. When we add our pounds with their pounds we begin to see our actions making an even larger difference!

After being questioned from people about whether or not one person can make a difference, I began to think of my own experiences. Not taking that plastic bag at the checkout, or using my reusable water bottle over time has saved a lot of resources. Even though small actions may not quickly or in one sweep save the environment, it helps. It’s a start, and that’s all you need sometimes, is a place or a person to start the change.

Whether you’re involved with pulling garlic mustard, planting trees, building homes, overthrowing a government, or helping relief victims, a little bit from one person can add up to substantial change. So don’t be inactive just because you think you’re the only one and that it won’t make a difference. Be the leader and make yourself the catalyst for change!