| By Russ Richardson, Forester
Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), is a biennial herbaceous plant that flowers and goes to seed in early spring.
Garlic mustard is a rapidly spreading problem in the central and northern part of West Virginia and it has recently begun to show up in roadside ditches in Calhoun and Roane Counties.
Not native to West Virginia, garlic mustard presents a very serious threat to the survival of our native hardwood forests that could potentially be more damaging than Japanese stiltgrass.
Garlic mustard roots put out chemicals that change the soil that have now been proven to kill soil organisms responsible for the germination of yellow poplar, sugar and red maple, white ash and cherry seedlings.
There is also a large and growing list of native flowers and herbaceous plants that are killed by the changes in soil chemistry caused by garlic mustard.
For healthy soil, garlic mustard is the vegetative equivalent of AIDS.
Unlike other invasive plants such as Japanese stiltgrass, multifloral rose or autumn olive that move into and become established in disturbed areas like pastures, gullies and roadsides, garlic mustard readily spreads from ditches and roadsides into high quality forests where no soil disturbance has taken place.
A single plant can produce nearly 10,000 seeds and with over 250,000 seeds per pound, garlic mustard seed is extremely small. Each of the two inch long spikes on these garlic mustard plants can hold up to 100 seeds.
A golf ball sized clod of mud can hold hundreds of seeds.
In addition to causing long term damage to soil fertility and woodland productivity, garlic mustard produces seed that will stay viable in the soil for years as a "seed bank".
Seeds produced in 2010 will continue to germinate for at least ten years.
In most areas where the soil is infested with garlic mustard important woodland plants like ginseng, Goldenseal, ramps, black Cohosh or even morel mushrooms will disappear and never return.
Land with garlic mustard present on the forest floor prior to logging has a good likelihood of never producing another hardwood forest again without planting.
Garlic mustard typically arrives in a new location when dirt or seed laden mud is dropped by machinery or construction equipment that has been used in an infected area and not cleaned before being moved.
The simplest way proven to prevent infection of new areas is to wash all logging and construction equipment prior to moving from an area where garlic mustard is present.
Once it is established the only way to control garlic mustard is to prevent the maturing of the plants and dispersal of the seeds during the early spring growing season.
Hand pulling, severe weed whacker treatment or herbicide spraying is effective but time consuming and costly.
Garlic mustard is a very serious problem in southern Roane County and can be found in Pup Run and several tributaries of the West Fork downstream from the Henry's Fork and West Fork confluence.
It also lines much of US 33/119 right of way between the Calhoun County line and Spencer.
At this time, garlic mustard can not be found in the Upper West Fork watershed from Arnoldsburg along the Route 16 corridor all the way to I-79 at Big Otter.
It is also not yet present in the Left Fork of the West Fork from Orma through Nicut and Elmira to Servia in Clay County.
It is also not to be found on Sand Ridge or most of Beech Fork and Henry Fork upstream from the Corder Bridge at the Calhoun County line on US 33/119.
The soon to be underway water project in southern Calhoun County could change the status of garlic mustard in our area forever.
The same company that is currently in the process of completing a waterline along US 33/119 in Roane County will soon be moving their tools, machinery and equipment to Calhoun for the work on our own water project.
Long stretches of the roadsides and ditches impacted as part of a current waterline project in Roane County are filled with mature, seed producing garlic mustard plants and the likelihood that most, if not all equipment being used in the project is impregnated with substantial amounts of garlic mustard seed is extremely high.
Steam cleaning or heavy washing of equipment has been proven very effective method to remove or destroy garlic mustard and other noxious weed seed trapped in recesses, wheels, tracks or tools.
As information on ecologically dangerous plants like garlic mustard is becoming more available an increasing number of construction contracts are now requiring that equipment washing and machinery hygiene is a part of the job.
Because the proof and recognition of the threat posed by garlic mustard is so new it is almost certain that the bid contract let by the Mt. Zion PSD contains no mention of invasive plants or equipment hygiene.
With the potential for hundreds and possibly thousands of local property owners to see the value, productivity or fertility of their land permanently lowered by the arrival of garlic mustard, slowing the spread by asking that equipment being used in the pending water project be sterilized before coming to Calhoun should make sound sense.
It may not be possible because it was not addressed the contract that has already been signed.
Once garlic mustard arrives and becomes established, it will rapidly spread into the most remote headwaters of the Upper West Fork as annual maintenance of roadsides and ditches by the Highway Department spreads the seed along all major thoroughfares.
Because garlic mustard seed is so small once it is established in ditch lines it will easily follow gas well service roads, ATV trails and driveways deep into the interior our local woodlands permanently altering what we consider a "healthy" forest.
It will be unfortunate to wait for 20/20 hindsight to develop on how cheaply and effectively we could have avoided a permanent and costly ecological change in area forests that future residents will be able to specifically trace to the Sand Ridge-Upper West Fork water project of 2010.
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