EXOTIC WEEDS

 Chatting with a friend recently, I was encouraged to hear him express a desire, when he retired, to undertake some voluntary bush regeneration in a council reserve near his home. “Of course,” he said jokingly, “I’ll need you to show me which plants are weeds and which are native”.

 I wasn’t familiar with the reserve in question and, on checking, found it was situated on a river bank and having a picnic area, so I dropped by to check it out.

From the road, the forested reserve shows an impressively healthy canopy which I was delighted to find consisted of a rare Silky Oak / Black Bean forest community. However, on entering the picnic area, I was confronted by rubbish and weeds, a sad reflection, not only on those who abuse and vandalise these amenities, but also on Council’s neglect.

The highly invasive weed, Cat’s Claw Creeper, was just one of many species there and not yet fully developed, but if left untreated, it will eventually smother and kill the trees completely.

Unfortunately, this neglect is evident across all public land, a standout example being a travelling stock reserve at South Grafton, just a few hundred metres from the Local Land Services’ office (LLS), the agency responsible for its management.

A survey of that seventy-hectare block revealed that one third of the 120 plant species recorded were exotic weeds, including several that are notifiable, and should be removed by law.

Interestingly, LLS’s website displays a document titled, ‘Regional Strategic Weed Management Plans’, which opens its first sentence with: "As a landowner, it’s your responsibility to manage weeds on your land".

Despite the frustration these sorts of examples generate, we shouldn’t be too critical of councils, or any of those agencies, as none of them are provided with the necessary resources to tackle the problem, but they should set an example.

In the end, it’s up to the community to stop dumping garbage and garden waste on roadsides and in bushland, clean up our own backyards, and maybe volunteer with a Landcare group.

    - John Edwards 

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 8th  May, 2026.  

LOSING OUT TO INVASIVE SPECIES

Australia’s State of the Environment Report, 2021, tells us that the greatest threats to biodiversity are habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change, with invasive species actually responsible for most extinctions.

While foxes, cats and wild dogs have had a devastating impact on Australian’s unique fauna, invasive plants have also taken their toll, often smothering native plant species.

The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions reports that weeds in NSW cost the economy between $1.67 billion and $1.9 billion annually, admitting that the impact of weeds on biodiversity and natural environments is harder to quantify, but equally significant.

The NSW government currently spends just $50 million annually on weed control, and clearly this is nowhere close to what is needed, as weeds continue to proliferate.

Invasive weeds such as Lantana are rampant in the state’s forests and national parks, with weed control in the former seemingly restricted to road verges to reduce scratching of vehicles, while national parks receive only cosmetic weed control around the more visited locations.

National parks and reserves have Plans of Management detailing weed control policy, which generally reads along the lines of: “NPWS weed control activity is conducted in accordance with the North Coast Region Pest Management Strategy. This strategy has been developed for the region as a whole and identifies pest populations, priorities for control, and control programs”.

However, while Lantana is probably the most invasive species in lower altitude forests, and is listed as a priority weed at a state level, it’s not listed as a priority for the North Coast region.

So essentially, because funding is so limited, the official policy focuses on newly emerging pest species such as Tropical Soda Apple and Devil’s Fig, hoping to eliminate them; while placing well established weeds into the ‘too hard basket’, allowing their uncontrolled proliferation.

“Collaboration” is a major theme throughout the regional plan, and we need to acknowledge that the weed problem is way beyond any government’s ability to deal with alone, so we all need to lift our game.

 

-        John Edwards

 

 Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 23rd July, 2025.