A PARTNERSHIP program to tackle weed invasion and erosion around key waterways across Port Macquarie-Hastings is making significant improvements to the re-establishment of native plant species.
In conjunction with Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, council has been undertaking a $272,000 bush regeneration project at four priority sites in local estuaries identified in its Estuary Management Plan.
Development and Environment director Matt Rogers said the project was designed to address erosion and weed invasion in council’s bushland reserves.
“These reserves were targeted because the vegetation has high conservation significance due to ongoing weed invasion and past land clearing,” he said.
The sites are:
– Googleys Island on the lower Camden Haven Estuary (environmental and noxious weed control in critically endangered littoral rainforest);
– Henry Kendall Reserve on Queens Lake (environmental and noxious weed control in threatened Swamp Oak Forest and Satinwood Blackbutt Forest);
– Bend of Islands on the Hastings River at Sancrox (environmental and noxious weed control in nationally threatened Lowland Subtropical Rainforest); and
– The Hatch on the lower Maria River (replanting of nationally endangered Lowland Subtropical Rainforest that includes stock exclusion and erosion control).
Mr Rogers said the joint project, to be completed by 2016, would deliver a good result for the local environment.
“Weed loads have been substantially reduced and that has allowed native species regeneration to establish, which naturally helps to repair these important sites,” he said.
As a part of the grant, council has committed to maintaining these sites into the future in good ecological condition through its weed control technicians and its two bush regeneration teams.
“We undertake these partnerships in the knowledge that we need assistance to get these sites to maintenance level, a process that then reduces our liability but allows us to meet our national responsibilities in protecting and extending the extent of these endangered plant communities,” Mr Rogers said.
