Growing like a weed – controlling the uncontrollable!

Figure 1 – Bush Heritage Australia’s Scottsdale Reserve (*Photo: Phil Palmer*)

By Ayden Nicoll (u7180146) – Word Count: 540

Bush Heritage Australia and how they are breaking the grass ceiling

The Scottsdale Reserve (Figure 1), located south of Canberra, is a private property owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia. Being one of Australia’s biggest NGOs in the environment and conservation space, it is comical that this reserve, sitting at around 1,300ha, is seen as one of their “baby” sites, with a cumulative 11.3 million hectares under their protection and/or management Australia-wide.

Here at Scottsdale, the specific aim is to restore the landscape to pre-European quality, particularly because it sits in the Critically Endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodland ecosystem. Rebuilding the ecosystem functions is the key to this project, so they undertake in-house seed germination, landscape restoration, and weed control, which supports their mission of protecting irreplaceable landscapes and native species. But this does not come without its challenges, one of the biggest being these pesky things known as weeds (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Blanket of weeds recently sprayed on Scottsdale Reserve (*Photo: Ayden Nicoll*)

The (flea)bane of their existence and how are they managing it?

Although seen by many as pretty with its seas of purple (Paterson’s Curse – Echium plantagineum) (Figure 3), these varying species of weeds are disrupting biodiversity and impacting on their ability to survive. This is because weeds are super resilient and tend to outcompete native plants, growing much faster, spreading quicker and essentially take over all resources, like sunlight, water, and nutrients. This is where they become problematic, not so much that they are present, but due to their efficiency, so they must be removed before they take over.

And that is one of the things being done at Scottsdale, with one of the largest operations on the reserve being the control and reduction of weeds. This is done to allow native species the chance to grow and establish themselves, which creates a positive feedback loop – increased abundance attracts more native fauna species that disperse their seeds further afield, and so on. This increases the biodiversity value of the ecosystem, positively impacting a greater number of species.

Figure 3 – Patterson’s Curse (*Echium plantagineum*) (*Photo: NSW WeedWise*)

Don’t stop be-leafing – some challenges & successes

There was a small win recently, with the complete eradication of Briar’s Rose (Rosa rubiginosa) (Figure 4), one of the most noxious weeds in the area – however, the repercussions seen were very unexpected. When it came to spring, several native bird species were looking around the property for places to build their nests, unbeknownst to the team on the reserve that the weed was used as crucial habitat.

Although this is problematic, planting of native species will be able to mitigate further impacts to these bird species and the removal of a very problematic weed has a higher importance overall. What was made very evident at Scottsdale is that conservation management is difficult… difficult decisions must be made every day which have knock-on effects that sometimes cannot be planned for, yet the benefit involved in controlling weeds cannot be overlooked.

The more you grow!

Bush Heritage Australia and the team at Scottsdale Reserve are a very hardworking bunch who are passionate about making a difference, clearly reflected in the incredible job of landscape restoration and weed control they accomplish every day. One thing is obvious – the impact they are having on the region is unbe-weed-ably beneficial!