Calling All Weed Warriors

Volunteers from the Newport Wilderness Society will be working to control Garlic Mustard through the month of June every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning at Newport State Park from 9 am until noon. Interested individuals and groups are welcome and encouraged to help in the battle against Garlic Mustard.

To help, call the park office the day before at 920.854.2500 or contact Don Heeringa any time at 920.421.2125.

Dwarf Lake Iris

Volunteers are needed on June 18 to help remove woodland Forget-Me-Nots at The Nature Conservancy’s Shivering Sands Preserve off of Glidden Drive in the Town of Sevastopol. Volunteers will meet at 9 am at the work location (just south of 4671 Glidden Drive; look for a small dirt road on west side of road). Work will continue until approximately noon.

All supplies will be provided. While Forget-Me-Nots are often seen as a harmless garden annual, their escape and prolific seed set can threaten native habitats and rare species (such as the federally threatened Dwarf Lake Iris at this site). To help, contact Door County Invasive Species Team (DCIST) coordinator Kari Hagenow ([email protected]).

The Ridges Sanctuary and DCIST will host a Black Swallow-Wort workshop on July 8 at 1 pm. Black Swallow-Wort has been recently found spreading in the county and is considered high priority for control and prohibited by Wisconsin’s Invasive Species Rule. The workshop is free and open to the public.

Participants can meet at The Ridges Upper Rangelight in Baileys Harbor. Before going out to remove the pods of Swallow-Wort, local weed warriors will give a brief talk on the identification and control of the plant. The workshop will last approximately two hours. For more information contact Kari Hagenow ([email protected]) or Marne Kaeske ([email protected]).

Throughout the summer, DCIST will work with Door County parks to identify invasive species concerns. Members of the public are invited to join Kari Hagenow as she hikes the trails and gets off the beaten path to explore the flora of county parks. Participants will learn to identify the various invasive species that may be found and will receive a tutorial on how the county maps these species using a handheld GPS. Listed below are the dates and locations for the month of July.

July 2: Meridian County Park, Town of Jacksonport.

July 11: Anhapee State Trail (meet at 1820 S. Neenah Ave. in Sturgeon Bay).

Garlic Mustard

July 16: Door Bluff Headlands, Town of Liberty Grove.

July 25: Sugar Creek, Town of Gardner.

July 30: Ellison Bluff, Town of Liberty Grove.

Hikes begin at 10 am in the respective parking area for each county park – most will last approximately two hours. For more information, contact Hagenow at [email protected] or 920.743.8695 ext. 306.