Garlic Mustard Games

The 2024 Garlic Mustard Games

Do you have what it takes to be an ecological champion?

What are the Garlic Mustard Games?

The Garlic Mustard Games program is a county-wide garlic mustard pull competition that runs May-August annually. Summit County residents, trail users, and visitors can form teams or pull individually and compete to see who can pull the most garlic mustard over the course of the summer! All are encouraged to participate; teams can add to their season totals by attending community weed pull events, visiting trailside garlic mustard pull stations, and/or bagging up garlic mustard in their own yards. A variety of prizes are up for grabs throughout the season. In the past, partners such as Dakine, Deer Valley, Woodward and Arcade, donated outdoor gear and accessories and bike passes to help generate interest. And this year, we have an exciting line-up of sponsors with amazing local deals and products. The top teams win a food truck party at the end of the summer!

Garlic mustard is a state-listed noxious weed known to outcompete native vegetation, degrade soil quality, harm native pollinators, increase wildfire risk, and diminish overall forest resiliency. While most of Utah is unaffected by this species, Summit County is battling widespread invasion. The goals of the Garlic Mustard Games are to control garlic mustard in Summit County, educate and empower our community to stop the spread of noxious weeds, and reduce the use of herbicide.

In 2023 Garlic Mustard Games volunteers set a record by pulling over 4,600 pounds of garlic mustard. Help us beat that record again in 2024!

Garlic Mustard Games Winners

2023 Winners

Garlic Mustard Be Gone Team

CONGRATULATIONS!

Previous Winners

2022 Moose Moss Team

2021 Ashley Caldwell

2020 Nancy Scheibe

How to get involved

1. FORM A TEAM. Teams can be as big or small as you want. Compete as an individual or invite a squad! No sign up or preregistration is required.

2. PULL GARLIC MUSTARD. The Summit CWMA hosts weed pull events all summer long; show up to as many as you can! Alternatively, visit one of our trailside garlic mustard pull stations or pull garlic mustard on your own property. Control what’s in your yard, along your favorite trail, or help out your neighbors.

3. WEIGH IT. At the end of each community weed pull event, staff will weigh your haul and add it to your team’s total.

Pulling remotely? Weigh your bags (or, if necessary, guesstimate; a full trash bag typically weighs ~15 pounds) and click the green button below to enter your total.

Note: we DO check entered weights against your photos; if you try to cheat, we will adjust your numbers.

4. REPEAT! Garlic mustard season is long. Go for gold by pulling as much as you can! If you run out of places to pull, email the CWMA – we’ll point you in the right direction!

The teams that pull the most garlic mustard by the end of the season (lbs of garlic mustard per teammate) will be crowned 2024 GMG Champions!

By incentivizing residents and visitors, this project brings residents and tourists to areas invaded by garlic mustard and other noxious weeds to see for themselves the magnitude of the problem. The time volunteers spend pulling garlic mustard gives them a better understanding of the labor required to successfully manage noxious weeds in our open spaces. Participants learn why we use the combination of weeding and herbicide and the importance of proper use of herbicide. Most importantly, they learn how they can help reduce the spread of noxious weeds and reduce the use of herbicide across Summit County.

This project aims to aid in restoring forest capacity to sequester carbon and to educate the public so they can aid in reducing noxious weed impacts to our local forests. The reduction of garlic mustard and outreach efforts enables us to make more headway towards eradicating this weed and restoring native species and ecosystem function. These functions are crucial to maintaining current soil carbon levels and sequestering additional carbon into the future.

Keep an eye out for our garlic mustard pull stations out on the trails too!

Check the Summit CWMA events calendar (under the Events tab) or facebook for event details and locations!

Questions? Comments? Photos? Email jo@ecologybridge.com.