PETERSBURG -- The war against one West Virginia invasive plant species is one you can sink your teeth into.

Garlic mustard, a plant originally introduced by European settlers in the 1860s, has since spread along floodplains and across disturbed areas in forests, such as trails, ditches and roadsides throughout West Virginia and much of the East and Midwest.

While it wreaks havoc on native plants and is threatening at least one butterfly species - the West Virginia white - it's also pretty good eating.

 "It has a really light garlic flavor," said Cynthia Sandeno, an ecologist for the Monongahela National Forest. "The settlers used it as an herb for cooking. It's good in lasagna."

In fact, participants in a four-event West Virginia 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge, which targets 10,000 pounds of garlic mustard for eradication, receive not only a garbage bag for collecting the pest, but a recipe card for cooking it. The recipes include garlic mustard quiche and garlic mustard and spinach ravioli with garlic mustard pesto.

While the plant may be tasty, the supply of garlic mustard far outstrips any potential increase in demand.

A single garlic mustard plant can produce 3,000 seeds annually, which can remain viable for up to 10 years - plenty of time to spread with the wind or water before taking root and spreading again.

"Once it comes in, it forms a thick carpet that can crowd out other plants," said Cynthia Sandeno, an ecologist for the Monongahela National Forest, as she eyed a patch of the pest growing along a recently widened road in Big Bend Campground. "Here, there should be wildflowers and maybe some mushrooms, but you won't find them."

On Saturday, Big Bend Campground was the site of the first event in the 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge, sponsored by the Monongahela National Forest and the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area.

The event gives volunteers the chance to learn a little about invasive species and the problems they pose before being directed to a patch of garlic mustard for some hands-on instruction on identification and digging technique. Trophies will be awarded to the teams that uproot and bag the most garlic mustard.

Garlic mustard, a plant originally introduced by European settlers in the 1860s, has since spread along floodplains and across disturbed areas in forests, such as trails, ditches and roadsides throughout West Virginia and much of the East and Midwest.

While it wreaks havoc on native plants and is threatening at least one butterfly species - the West Virginia white - it's also pretty good eating.

 "It has a really light garlic flavor," said Cynthia Sandeno, an ecologist for the Monongahela National Forest. "The settlers used it as an herb for cooking. It's good in lasagna."

In fact, participants in a four-event West Virginia 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge, which targets 10,000 pounds of garlic mustard for eradication, receive not only a garbage bag for collecting the pest, but a recipe card for cooking it. The recipes include garlic mustard quiche and garlic mustard and spinach ravioli with garlic mustard pesto.

While the plant may be tasty, the supply of garlic mustard far outstrips any potential increase in demand.

A single garlic mustard plant can produce 3,000 seeds annually, which can remain viable for up to 10 years - plenty of time to spread with the wind or water before taking root and spreading again.

"Once it comes in, it forms a thick carpet that can crowd out other plants," said Cynthia Sandeno, an ecologist for the Monongahela National Forest, as she eyed a patch of the pest growing along a recently widened road in Big Bend Campground. "Here, there should be wildflowers and maybe some mushrooms, but you won't find them."

On Saturday, Big Bend Campground was the site of the first event in the 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge, sponsored by the Monongahela National Forest and the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area.

The event gives volunteers the chance to learn a little about invasive species and the problems they pose before being directed to a patch of garlic mustard for some hands-on instruction on identification and digging technique. Trophies will be awarded to the teams that uproot and bag the most garlic mustard.

"In the United States, non-native invasive species cost us $138 billion a year," Sandeno told a small group of Americorps and Forest Service volunteers taking part in the Big Bend event. "More than 37 million acres of public land is heavily infested with invasive species."

In addition to crowding out wildflowers and other native plants, garlic mustard makes life difficult for wildlife species that depend on native plants for their pollen, nectar, seeds and fruits.

As a group, non-native invasive species are blamed for contributing to the decline of 42 percent of the endangered and threatened species in the United States.

An uncommon and rapidly declining butterfly species, the West Virginia white, flies only in April and May and feeds on the flower nectar of toothwort, spring beauty and other native wildflowers, which are being crowded out by garlic mustard. West Virginia whites prefer to lay their eggs on garlic mustard, but after the eggs hatch, maturing larvae eat the host plant, find it unpalatable and die.

Digging garlic mustard up by its roots is an effective, but not particularly efficient way to stop the spread of the invasive plant.

The use of herbicide spray would dramatically escalate the war against the tenacious, fast-spreading pest, but an environmental review process has not been completed to enable herbicide use on Monongahela National Forest land.

Meanwhile, badly infested, frequently used sites like Big Bend Campground will receive follow-up weed pulls in the years to come.

The next scheduled event on the Garlic Mustard Challenge will take place Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., at Greenbrier State Forest near White Sulphur Springs, followed by a May 9 weed pull at Watoga State Park, a May 16 event at Camp Pocahontas near Bartow and a May 23 finale at Summit Lake east of Richwood.

For more information on the 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge, log on to www.afha.us/garlic_mustard/index.html or contact ebu...@fs.fed.us or at 304-636-1800.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.