The Friends of
Shenton Bushland
Inc.
How will we find our wild hearts inside this city;
How will we find the deep peace?
A. Stevens
Bushland Activities page (blog)
Bushland Management Strategies
Individual Management Strategies:
Shenton Bushland Management Strategy
The Friends of Shenton Bushland Inc follow the Bradley method, which means that we try as hard as possible to:
- work along the boundary between bushland in good condition and weed infestations (this is not always obvious!),
- minimize disturbance to soil (using combination of hand weeding and chemicals), and,
- rate of regeneration is dictated by the ability of the bushland to regenerate (and our resources)
In addition to using the Bradley approach, we have a program of monitoring the impact of our activities on the biodiversity of the bushland, and ensuring that we use our scarce resources as effectively as possible for protecting the biological processes of the bushland.
We have developed detailed management strategies for the following weeds:
- veldgrass (Erhartia longifolia, Erhartia calycina),
- freesia (Fressia sp),
- lachenalia (Lachenalia reflexa),
- geraldton carnation weed (Euphorbia terracina),
- pelargonium (Pelargonium capitatum),
- watsonia (Watsonia meriana),
- one leaf cape tulip (Moraea flaccida),
- bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides),
- black flag (Feraria crispa),
Over the past 10 years of working in Shenton Bushland, we have come to appreciate the wisdom of the Bradley approach to bushland renegeration.
In addition, the Environmental Weeds Action Network has developed a great wealth of technical information to guide us in the practicalities of using chemicals and hand weeding techniques within the bushland.
Working along the edge between good bushland and weed infested areas is strategically superior to the naive approach to weed management. The naive approach is to tackle the worst areas of weed infestations, and try to elliminate those areas, first. This approach is doomed to failure because areas that are badly infested with weeds are very difficult and time consuming to regenerate, and while all our resources are tied up with this task, the weeds continue to spread and damage the rest of the bushland. Using the Bradley approach, we can stop the weeds spreading, even with limited resources, and each year the size of the weed problem gets smaller.
The difficult aspect of this approach is knowing where the boundary between good bushland and weed infested areas is. We use global position system (GPS) instruments to map weed infestations in the bushland, and help us decide where we should work.
Working at a rate determined by the capacity of the bushland to regenerate requires experience that we do not possess. We therefore work by a rule-of-thumb - which is that we do not work in areas where the weeds out-number the local plants. If we find ourselves standing in a sea of veldgrass, then we are clearly not in a place where we should be working. On the other hand, if we find ourselves stepping (carefully) among mostly native plants, searching hard for the odd patch of weeds here and there, then we are in clearly the right place.