RESTORE NATIVE HABITAT WHILE FORAGING!

Garlic Mustard is a nonnative, invasive plant that thrives in shade and rich soils. It densely colonizes our forest floors, pushing out our diverse native wildflowers and confusing native insects, including pollinators. This plant spreads aggressively by seed, but is easy to pull by hand. It’s also pretty tasty! Join Mainspring and the Forest Service to hike into Bly Gap and forage as much Garlic Mustard as we can carry back. We will likely see other early spring curiosities along the way including early spring wildflowers, ferns, bryophytes (and other mosses), and perhaps a few early migrating warblers.

During this event, we will hike up to the Bly Gap AT Crossing/water source, where we’ll pull up as much Garlic Mustard as we can carry back. This is a strenuous 1.75 mile (3.5 miles round trip), 1200ft elevation gain hike. Some of the Garlic Mustard we remove will be used in our Garlic Mustard Cooking Class with Wildcraft Kitchen and Winding Stair Nursery (click here for more details), and participants are encouraged to take the rest home to their own kitchens. Tools and snacks will be provided, but bring a lunch and your own work gloves if you have them. No experience is necessary; Garlic Mustard is easy to ID even if you are a beginner botanist, and all participants will be given a brief ID lesson.

We will meet in the lot between the Clay County Fire and Rescue Station 6 (18 Eagle Fork Rd, Hayesville, NC 28904) and Advanced Digital Cable at 9:30am on Thursday, April 2. See the map on our website for the exact location. From there we will caravan to the parking area, about 10 minutes down the road. We will be out until around 4:00pm. Fill out the form on our website to register for this event.