The Green contingent included families, individuals, members of Green High School’s Key Club and AP Environmental Science Class plus several members of EnviroScience Inc., a team of expert biologists, commercial divers and environmental scientists and engineers based in nearby Stow.
Senior ecologist Michael Liptak, who was at the Green site, said the plant was brought from Europe to America as a food product in 1868 with leaves that smell of garlic and can be used to make pesto sauce.
With Green volunteers receiving garlic mustard T-shirts and other prizes donated by local businesses, Mike Elkins, Green’s administrator of Parks Planning and Development, said: “This competition isn’t about which community wins.
Meanwhile, Lisa Brohl, a Put-In-Bay environmental consultant who accepted the Green challenge as a member of the township’s park district board, posted a video on Facebook seeking volunteers, noting they could receive prizes if they pulled at least two bags of garlic mustard during the event, which ran from 9 a.m.
Brohl said her group’s total five-hour haul was 1,845 pounds of garlic mustard, noting they only had expected 20 volunteers before the event began.
Brohl also peppered the competition with a playful twist on history, invoking the naval Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 — when U.S.
Among those aiding Green’s challenge, Green High sophomore Zack Akers, a member of Boy Scout Troop 335 at Greensburg United Methodist Church, said, “I’m a Star Scout working toward my Eagle Scout rank.