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Spring Into Weed Busting – Weedbuster Week 2010

People across Bass Coast are being urged to weed bust their way through Spring.

By Bass Coast - 10th September 2010 - Back to News

In conjunction with National Weedbuster Week (6-12 September), residents and landowners are being offered free indigenous plants to encourage them to join the battle against the weeds.

Bass Coast Shire Council, Bass Coast Landcare, Phillip Island Nature Parks and volunteer groups are all working together to controll weeds across the Shire. The "Weeds Out, Indigenous Plants In" campaign has been running annually since 2000.

"Spring is a great time to deal with environmental weeds, because the life cycle of many plants means that they are vulnerable at this time," says Council’s Natural Resources Officer, David Martin.

"Many environmental weed outbreaks in our bushland reserves originate from plants that have spread from private properties. Some of these have spread from private gardens by seeds transported by the wind, water or animals."

Mr Martin urged private landholders to do their bit to reduce the impact of garden weed escapes.

"We want people to take advantage of the’Weeds Out, Indigenous Plants In’ campaign that we are running," said Mr Martin.

"In this program residents from Bass Coast townships will be provided with free indigenous plants as a reward for removing identified problem species from their gardens.

"Often weeds are easier to identify when they are flowering, so this is a perfect time to target them," continued Mr Martin.

"Creepers such as Cape Ivy and Dolichos are sometimes inconspicuous when growing amongst the canopy of trees and shrubs when they are not in flower.

"For other weeds, like Bridal Creeper and Asparagus Fern, spraying them when they are active over these months means that future shooting will be kept to a minimum.

"Some of the more serious invasive species are quite common in gardens and include Agapanthus, Cotoneaster, Sweet Pittosporum, Arum Lily and Bluebell Creeper."

Council’s Environment Team run an environmental weeds control program for Council managed Foreshore and Bushland Reserves.

"Over the past year, we’ve targeted a number of different species at different times," said Mr Martin.

"These include garden escapes such as Kikuyu, Dolichous, Boneseed, Mirror Bush and Sweet Pittosporum.

"We are currently spraying 20 kilometres of foreshore reserves for Bridal Creeper and Asparagus Fern and over 50 hectares of bushland reserves," continued Mr Martin.

"Our volunteer groups have been working at locations across the Shire, targeting various week species, and re-planting with indigenous ones."

Mr Martin said the work that people did in their own gardens was an important part of the overall weed control strategy for the Shire.

"We know that weeds can spread from private gardens and threaten the natural ecosystems, " said Mr Martin.

"Weeds can invade native plant communities and over-run them. In the worst case scenario, this could mean the loss of some plant species and the habitat for some of our native animals."

For details of the "Weeds Out, Indigenous Plants In" offer, please visit Council’s website www.basscoast.vic.gov.au or contact Council on 1300 BCOAST (226 278).

END

Background

Weedbusters started in Queensland in 1994. In 1997, Weedbuster Week was launched nationally, with encouragement and support from the Australian government, all state and territory governments and the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Australian Weed Management.

This year’s theme is Prevention and Early Detection.

Weedbusters aim to:

· raise awareness and increase public understanding about the impacts of weeds

· help people understand how some gardening and agricultural practices can lead to land and environmental degradation

· provide information and opportunities to build skills and knowledge so that people can better manage weeds

· foster community ownership of problems resulting in acceptance and support for weed management projects

· recognise the efforts of volunteers, community groups, and local governments in areas of excellent weed management

For more information, visit www.weedbusterweek.info.au

For more information contact:

Eleanor McKay

communications coordinator

t (03) 5671 2296 | f (03) 5671 2222 | m 0407 557 620

e e.mckay@basscoast.vic.gov.au

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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