News from the Field

Charles Darwin Reserve Weeding Bee 

In August this year, we were joined by 22 willing volunteers to assist us with our annual weeding program carried out at 23 key weed sites on the reserve.  Due to the combination of an extremely dry year over 2006, and a terrific effort last year (which helped reduce a significant part of the weed seed store) there were a lot less weeds to “pull, chip, spray and chop” than from previous years. 

For the most part, we were treated to stunning spring days which made visits to the weed sites all the more enjoyable, and enabled us to be treated to Sandra’s ripper campfire damper whilst out weeding. 

A special thanks to everyone who helped with our weeding Bee, in total you contributed to over 550 volunteer hours in work!  We greatly appreciate the time and effort everyone made to travel to the reserve and participate in such an important part of biodiversity management. 

We hope to see you all again next year!

Photo above: “Some of the group of volunteers enjoying a well earned sunset drink after a busy week of weeding and erosion control”

Having many willing hands to help at the CDR Weeding Bee, also enabled us to carry out some strategic erosion control work on the reserve.  Many of the weed problem areas are exacerbated by water flow which has been artificially modified due to tracks and past grazing pressure. 

Modified ‘overland water-flows’ also create bad erosion problems and have significant impacts on soil condition and native vegetation growth.  To help stem weed and erosion problems, we have begun putting in ‘brush traps’ to slow water movement after heavy rains. 

Using branches and logs, we pack loose material into gullies and creeks where water begins cutting into the soil surface after rain.  The sticks, twigs and leaves serve to slow the water down, and hence the water loses a lot of the energy which would otherwise continue down slope carrying precious top soil (and in many, cases weed seeds.) 

Over the past 6 months we have already found a lot of our traps beginning to silt up, and we have also found many weeds thriving in amongst the brush.  This is a great help to our weed management, because it has slowed much of the weed spread into the adjacent bush and helps us to target our weed control efforts. Photo above: "the group getting ready to build brush traps”

A brush trap (photo left) working successfully to slow water flow down an old road at ‘the Breakaway’ on Charles Darwin Reserve.