Weed Warriors go bio-control
From the February 2007 edition of Agriculture Today.
Port Kembla school students are waiting to see how their classroomreared bio-control agents have worked against a local infestation of bitou bush, a weed of national significance.
Year fives became the vanguard of a State-wide program called Weed Warriors, when they let loose their colony of leaf-roller moths at Boiler’s Point.
Judging by the significant impact the moths are having on other bitou bush infestations along the NSW coast, they won’t be waiting long to see the results.
Leaf-roller moths were introduced to Australia to help control the highly invasive weed in 2001 and are its natural enemy in its country of origin, South Africa.
“Weed Warriors recognises children as the land managers of the future,” the program’s coordinator, Alyssa Schembri, said, encouraging other NSW schools to follow the Port Kembla students and join the program.
The program aims to involve students in a hands-on, entertaining way that increases their awareness and empowers their role in protecting local environments against the spread of weeds.
As it expands, students will work with local weed officers, land managers and community groups, to implement biological control programs against “priority weeds” in each region.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will offer the program to all NSW schools from the first term of this year.
Students around the State will rear bio-control agents in their classroom to target Patersons curse, horehound, bitou bush, salvinia, gorse and bridal creeper.
The DPI co-ordinated the Port Kembla Weed Warriors in partnership with the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (SRCMA).
SRCMA deputy chair, Michael Muston, said Weed Warriors would support the weed control efforts of land managers and communities along the Illawarra and South Coasts.
“Successful weed management needs a collective, co-ordinated approach,” Mr Muston said.
“The Authority sees this work making a great contribution to the effort to better care for natural resources and deal with one of our worst coastal weeds.”
Weed Warriors is an initiative of the Co-operative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management, funded nationally by the Natural Heritage Trust.
“Weeds are one of the major threats to the environment and agriculture in Australia, and yet many people in the community know little about them,” Ms Schembri said.
The website is www.weedwarriors.net.au
Contact Alyssa Schembri, Orange, (02) 6391 3850, alyssa.schembri@dpi.nsw.gov.au
