MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Under the shady trees of many parks in Meridian Township the native plants are in competition with invasive plants to keep their home. If not controlled, an invasive plant species can move into a natural area, uncontrolled and take over. They have become a problem because there are not any insects or animals that will eat them. There are more than 30 different types of invasive plants that are being tracked in Lake Lansing Park North. Some of the biggest culprits are garlic mustard, dames rocket, autumn olive and Japanese barberry.

"Even in natural areas you have to maintain these areas much like you do your own garden and constantly pull these bad things out of it," explained Dr. Leslie Kuhn, Coordinator of the Mid-Michigan Stewardship Initiative .

Many of these invasive plants have been brought into the parks because of improper dumping of yard waste, alien gardening plants and birds dropping seeds.

Some invasive plants like Garlic Mustard and Dames Rocket have a special way they need to be disposed of. From a Michigan Law they must be picked from the root, placed into a plastic bad and thrown into your regular trash receptacle.

So the question is why should residents care so much about the protecting the native plant species in the parks?

"These species we have on Earth are our heritage, and you just never know when some obscure plant no body ever heard about, turns out to the source of some or inspiration for a fantastic molecule that might be important to medicine or industry," said Peter Carrington, Assistant Curator at the W.J. Beal Botanical Garden.

Each year of pulling these invasive species out of the parks and disposing of them properly helps to have less invasive hot spots for years to come.