Pulling Garlic Mustard for Hornaday Badge Project

Posted on May 13, 2020 Updated on May 20, 2020

John Gunderman was determined to work on his Hornaday Badge project.

John had organized several work days for Troop 358 to pull garlic mustard in April but due to the Covid -19 and the stay in place order they had to wait. When the stay in place order was lifted on May 4 John organized new dates for his Troop with a modified plan that included social distancing, face masks, and education of the scouts through the Troop Zoom meetings and emails. The modified plan was approved by Mindy Murdoch the Zion Nature Center Naturalist and the Troop Committee.

However, this was a special situation as the service project was scheduled, canceled, and reworked. Mindy Murchoch asks that others refrain from scheduling a mustard pull or other service projects with the Zionsville Parks at this time.

“Really the best time to pull is early April to the first week of May. Pulling plants that have already seeded is fruitless because after the plant seeds it dies. The goal is to catch it when in flower or just at the start of making seed pods. Currently, because of COVID-19 and that Town facilities remain closed we have no service projects on our books as we are working a skeleton crew for all our parks as well as here at the nature center and maintaining social distancing of never more than one staff member in a facility at one time.

We will be meeting with regards to Creekfest this month. If that event does occur in August that might be the next option for scouts.”