And the winner is…

…the West Michigan Cluster, with a whopping 52,258.75 lbs!

Together this spring, we pulled 266,012 pounds of garlic mustard from our woods and natural areas. Thank you for all of your hard work this spring! It takes a lot of people with a lot of different skills to accomplish something so huge. Whether you were pulling in your own back yard, telling your neighbor about the plant, teaching in classrooms or in the woods, leading events or spreading the word about workdays, THANK YOU!

While the West Michigan Cluster won the Cluster Cup this year, something happened this year that has never happened before. We actually had more pounds reported from Out-of-Cluster participants than we got from any one Cluster. Out-of-Cluster competitors joined forces from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Missouri to report a spectacular 75,313.25 pounds! More people are hearing about the Stewardship Network and want to join in what we’re doing, which means sharing more knowledge over an even greater area. It’s really exciting! 

Thank you all for your participation in the 2011 Challenge. All of the work you’ve done this spring is important and will be postively effecting our natural areas for many years to come!

Check out how all the Clusters wrapped up the Challenge season, and make sure you guys all pat yourselves and each other on the back from making the 2o11 Challenge such a phenomenal success. Cheers!

Lisa, Katie, Kara, Erin and Brandon