Garlic Mustard Weed
Garlic Mustard weed is the main invasive species that I am focusing on because it is what I did my service on and really think it needs to be indetified to others to help minimize the spread of the plant.
Garlic Mustard weed is an invasive species from Europe that changes the levels of Ph in the soil. This plant is allelopathic which produces chemicals which makes the soils ph levels more acidic. The plant is also labeled as a Class A noxious weed. In Washington it is on the quarantine lost (prohibited plants list). Mustard weed is one the most wanted removal of invasive species because of how it changes the soil and the rapid reproduction rate it has. Each plant can produce more than 62,000 seeds. Just imagine if half of those make it than there are 31,000 invasive plants in that area and that is originally just from ONE plant.
The root cause of the problems with this plant is lack of education. People when out hiking and having fun in the wilderness don't all know that mustard weed is an invasive species. So, when kids and others run, bike and hike in the woods, sometimes they will walk on or ride over the plant. When they do this seeds pop out and then about 4-6 seedlings grow around that one plant that was stomped on. Also if someone had not read on the proper way to remove of the species and cut the plant the same thing will happen as when stomped on. The other part is after they have stomped on it or rode their bike over it, seeds get on their tread. Then when they go other places the seeds will fall off their treads and into the soil spreading the species farther.
With more and more people on this planet every day that means more and more people will be hiking. This also means more and more people spreading invasive species everywhere around the world. Right now it's biggest impact is in the United States as we have had many invasive species brought over from Europe with our easy access to the other parts of the world.