Winners Announced!

Our Garlic Mustard Pull-A-Thon is an annual fundraiser event, where we encourage folks throughout southeastern Wisconsin to protect the woodlands of their neighborhoods by pulling this invasive plant.  This year, our goal is to collectively pull 5,000 pounds and raise essential funds for the fight against invasive species! 

The pull-a-thon is a competition, a fundraiser, and a way for people to join together and have a positive impact on their environment.  Our natural areas will only avoid damage from invasives with a long-term sustained commitment to invasives control.

 This year, 361 dedicated residents formed ten volunteer teams which helped to raise funds and awareness while controlling 13,500 pounds of garlic mustard and dame's rocket in our natural areas.  Volunteers recruited friends, family and colleagues to sponsor their pulling efforts.  This is a fun way to make a real difference in the protection of the wild areas that we love.

More than $3,000.00 in pledged contributions was raised by team members and shared between SEWISC and the event partners.  The funds will be used for invasive species education, prevention and control in southeastern Wisconsin. 

Our impressive traveling trophy is passed annually to the team with the most bags of pulled garlic mustard and/or dame’s rocket, and this year the winner is the Caledonia Conservancy Team which pulled 3,450 pounds!  The team recruited 90 students from McKinley Middle School Roosevelt’s house led by team leader Amy Pollatz.  In addition to the students, there were 11 Caledonia Conservancy adults that helped pull and supervise the students.  Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed being outdoors at the Trout Ponds/Prairie.

The impressive traveling trophy was awarded to the Caledonia Conservancy staff and volunteers by Andy Holschbach (SEWISC Board of Directors Vice-President).  The event was held at the Conservancy’s beautiful Trout Ponds-Prairie property on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 2:00 PM.  Please visit the Caledonia Conservancy website to learn more about their efforts to conserve our natural resources. 

Many thanks to all of you who got outdoors, pulled garlic mustard, told your neighbors about this invasive plant, and reported your progress as part of the 2015 event!