Garlic mustard is an invasive species that chokes out beneficial native plants and spreads faster than kennel cough.

   It has a life cycle of five years, so this is a battle that needs to be fought annually until it is under control.

   And now is the season to fight this year's battle.

   If you are birding at the Celery Farm, know what garlic mustard looks like  and are feeling just a bit industrious, you could help the refuge big-time by taking a big plastic bag with you, uprooting a bag's worth, tying it off and leaving it at the kiosk.

  I have learned that just pulling the weed out of the ground and leaving it on the trail without bagging makes matters worse, because the plant will often go to seed anyway, and walkers track the seed all over the refuge.

    At some Midwest nature refuges, they ask that you wipe your feet on a boot scraper before you enter to reduce the spread of this and other invasives.

   Better to safe than sorry.