Peter Franklin has been campaigning to get the Erica lusitanica infestations on the Arve road dealt with for a few years. Anyway, they're still there.
About 450m west of Bennetts Road (Geeveston 1:25,000 Map, Ref 862217) there is a sizeable infestation in a creek depression, as well as along the side of the road.
There's another one on the inside of the corner where the Arve Rd turns left and Lidgerwood Rd joins it from straight ahead (Geeveston 1:25,000 Map, Ref 879225).
The State Government's management plan, I note, is not very positive about eradicating this weed. However, this location is near to the WHA, and perhaps it would be good to have a go. The Huon Valley Council considers (PDF 855KB) Spanish Heath to be a priority 4 weed, and as such I think it's unlikely they'll do anything. They seem to have this site and others on their map of weeds. The map of low priority weeds in their plan is like a nasty rash!
6 comments:
Thanks for the report Mark, hopefully Forestry will do something about this , as promised, during the spring months
It's a bit of a problem up here in the borth-west as well. Maybe if it was uglier their would be more of cry to get rid of it.
Yes, in a photo, or on its own, it's quite attractive. However, it stands out jarringly against the proper native vegetation. I walked along the side of the road, really unclear what I was looking for, but when I saw it it stood out like the proverbials. Also, I didn't expect it to be in flower, but it was. I gather this plant is unable to be eradicated. When you read the control plan linked in the blog, they've decided to stop it spreading, rather than try to eradicate it. As the tables show Circular Head and Waratah/Wynyard are trying to eradicate it, but Burnie and Devonport for example have given up. Huon Valley have too.
Hi Mark
Depressing news about this attractive Garden Escape (Weed).
I assume that Tassie has volunteer groups "Landcare", "Bush-Care" or similar. I have seen infestation of similar Ericas in Victoria, and know it is a problem. But surely the problem is an attitudinal one, not, for example, a resistence to Glyphosate Bio-Active, or similar.
Sounds like your Council needs a kick up the Proverbial.
Easy for me to say. Best of luck with it.
Cheers
Denis
out of interest did this site end up getting cleaned up?
Short answer, NO, it has spread.
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