All A-Cuivre for Invasives

Dear Internet,

I've spent the last four weeks hunting this plant:

Garlic mustard

It's invasive season all right! All our projects these days are hitting various invasive species (bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, autumn olive, etc.) I've spent the last four weeks at Cuivre River (it's pronounced quee-vr and means "copper" in French, but here in Missur-uh, they say quiver). There, we kill a devilplant called garlic mustard.

Garlic mustard was brought over from Europe to be grown in gardens and used as a seasoning, since the leaves really do taste like garlic. Turns out, it's invasive, taking over whole areas and killing various fungi in the soil (including popular Morel mushrooms). So, we kill it.

It's not terribly exciting, but it's not terribly terrible either - mostly just walking through the forest with a backpack sprayer of herbicide and hosing down all the plants we find. Meh.

Also for the last three weeks, I was a Team Leader (TL) at Cuivre. It's an interesting change, leading the team, but I've found I'm pretty content just to be a team member. People tend to argue with me when I make group decisions and there's a lot more responsibility to make sure that everything goes as planned - not to mention making the plan in the first place - so I'm not crazy about it. It's not terrible though, and it's a set of skills I'd like to work on, so I'm glad for the opportunity.

Anyway, that's about all that's been going on. I'll be on a 10-day rotation at a place called Roaring River this next time (if we don't get called anywhere for the hailstorm/thunder storm/tornado that just rolled past the front stoop). See you later!

xoxo Liz