Ten keen Weedbusters attended the third working bee in Ligar Bay on Saturday. This time it was to help the owners of the properties in the middle of the Bay to clear the pest vines, banana passion vine and old man’s beard, from the regenerating native trees. 474 vines, including a surprising 365 Old man’s beard, were killed in the morning. A few Climbing asparagus plants were also found and dealt with.
This patch of large Old man’s beard plants is one of the few remaining in the area and the windblown seedlings were found over hundreds of metres of the hill side centred around the large vines.
They are easy to spot at this time of year when they are growing rapidly – see photo.
John Davies, who hosted the morning tea, commented that it was good to see how to identify and deal with the various vines. Others appreciated the refresher training and a chance to help their local community.
This is part of an intensive phase of vine control, over the next two years, from Ligar Bay to Wainui Hill. Project De-Vine has received funding from the DOC Community Fund to support our team to assist the many owners to clear their pest vines.
A big thanks to all who participated, those who supplied refreshments and to the sponsors of the working bees in general: Cut’n’Paste – Waiheke Island (who give us a very generous deal on buying the glyphosate bottles) and Nelson Building Society.
This working bee is helping pest vine work along the coastal strip, by lowering the reseeding, around Tata Peninsula on TDC and QEII land. It was carried out by our experienced team. This shows how it is possible to manage large areas of pest vine infested land. This will complete an area of pest vine cleared land from Rameka Creek to Wainui. It will also complement the control work on many different plants around the “Halo” of Abel Tasman National Park, where Project De-Vine is contracted to do this work in conjunction with Project Janszoon.
Project De-Vine, in conjunction with Landcare Trust, Project Janszoon, TDC and DOC, is still planning to assess the area from Riwaka to Marahau for the amount of control work needed for Old man’s beard, Banana passion vine and wilding Douglas firs. Several landowners have contacted us to ask for advice and a helicopter company have offered an hour of free survey time. As soon as the funds are raised to complete the survey, we will get started, with the intention to use the data to apply for a grant to do control work.
We run a “Swap a bottle” scheme for those cutting and pasting pest vines. You can bring empty bottles to our office at 12 Motupipi St in Takaka and receive a refill. Contact us to arrange a time.
