SEWISC Wild Chervil Control

Southeastern Wisconsin is especially vulnerable to invasive species due to habitat availability in urbanized and other disrupted areas, and the high rate of road traffic traveling to and from Illinois, which can unintentionally transport and introduce invasive species to new areas. One of these species is Wild Chervil (Anthriscus silvestris), also known as Cow Parsley, Bur Chervil, and Keck. Wild Chervil thrives in roadsides, forest edges, fields, pastures, and disturbed areas, and is unfortunately a familiar face in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium (SEWISC) has been raising funds and awareness for invasive species control since 2007. SEWISC functions as a Cooperative Weed Management Area and promotes invasive species management in an 8-county region including Sheboygan, Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Walworth, Racine, and Kenosha.

Marek Landscaping’s involvement with the SEWISC- Wild Chervil Control project began in 2017 in Muskego on a small site needing additional Wild Chervil intervention; a 0.6-acre area just off of N Cape Road. While the past 4 years of our prescribed treatments have dramatically reduced the population of Wild Chervil in the designated area, the neighboring untreated property continues to have an uncontrolled population of Wild Chervil.

Our Wild Chervil mitigation efforts continued in 2018-2020 with our undertaking of five acres along the Hank Aaron Trail to the east of S Hawley Road in Milwaukee, and six more miles along rural roadside to the north, in Cedarburg.

Wild Chervil is best controlled by an herbicide treatment in early to mid-May with a follow up in early June.