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
Newsletter archive:
Newsletter #46 July 2003
Welcome to the Shenton Bushland (natural) Flower Show!
If you have been in the bushland recently, you will have noticed
that it is looking very pretty, with many plants in flower, including
Acacia wildenowiana (pictured above), Hovea, Hardenbergia, Pterostylis
vittata (banded greenhood orchid), Lomandra preisii, Daviesia triflora,
and Hibbertia hypericoides.
Don't miss the show!
In the bushland
We have been successful in applying for funding for our work in the bushland. A Community Conservation Grant of $1500 will fund (a) use of Dalapon for controlling Watsonia and (b) weed mapping in the bushland.
Kate Brown tested out Dalapon on Watsonia during her work in Shenton Bushland two years ago, and found that it was quite effective on Watsonia while not having great impact on native plants (other than sedges).
One of our members (Rob Davis) will be doing the mapping for us. It involves about one week of criss-crossing through the bushland using a GPS to record locations of five key weeds (veldgrass, freesia, lachenalia, geraldton carnation weed, and pelargonium).
Visitors to the bushland may have noticed the characteristic red stain from our veldgrass spraying program. Our contractor (Phil O'Neil) made good use of the recent spell of fine weather to get the spraying done. This veldgrass spraying is funded by a grant that we obtained a few years ago.
Nedlands Council is also funding spraying of freesia and lachenalia, and possibly for controlling geraldton carnation weed as well.
With all this use of chemicals in the bushland, it is easy to assume that the weeds are all being controlled. In fact, the chemicals are not the final answer to weed control. Long term use of chemicals is likely to cause problems such as resistance, and damage to native plants.
We see chemicals as just one tool to reduce weed populations and stop them spreading. The chemicals allow us to buy time during which we weed around the infestations and encourage the bushland to gradually reclaim degraded areas until the weeds are gone. See the article (below) by John Adeney for other approaches to bushland management. We welcome your help in doing that work.
Point of view: Increasing bushland resilience to weeds
By John Adeney
At the recent Bold Park- Kings Park Research Symposium Dani spoke on the need to increase the resilience of bushland to excessive growth of introduced plants (commonly recognized as weed growth). In fact, he invited the researchers present to research ways to increase the resilience of bushland for bush regenerators (this comment was reported to have been received in silence; possibly it did not fit in with the researchers research aims and research policies).
In fact, I contend that we already have the answer. Weeds
require three contributing factors to grow well - water, nutrients and
light. Autumn rains provide water and allow nutrients to become accessible
to plant roots. If the tree canopy is open or absent then the maximum
solar radiation will fall onto the soil, increasing the soil temperature
and hastening germination of all plants.
Herein, perhaps, lays the answer to increasing the resilience of the bushland:
to increase the density of the tree canopy. This means the planting of
trees and tall native plants in bushland areas. We have noticed that Hakea
prostrata, (a local plant that despite its name grows 3-4m high in Shenton
Bushland), germinates almost 100% after hand sowing, and is very effective
in colonising degraded areas. This plant could be used to increase the
tree canopy density (at a lower height) and thus reduce weed growth or
reduce the rate of germination of weedy grasses and plants? In turn larger
trees such as banksias, tuarts and jarrah trees would ultimately produce
shade and become dominant.
Perhaps we could plant degraded areas of Shenton Bushland with Hakea prostrata and remove the weed problems after a few years. Or am I too optimistic?
Coming Events
Fungi Day
Our Fungi Day will be held on Sunday, July 6th. We will meet at Shenton College at 12.30 for an introductory talk by Neil Bougher. Then we will form into groups to look for specimens of fungi, which we bring back, and learn to categorise according to families. Finish by 4.30pm.
Numbers are limited (to about 50), so please contact Dani on 9381 3470 to book a place. Children welcome.
Next committee meeting
This will be held on Thursday 17th July at 7.30 pm at 117 Derby Road, Shenton Park. Contact Dani (9381 3470) for details.