Breakthrough on garden weeds

Forest and Bird, Issue 280, 1 May 1996, Page 5

Breakthrough on garden weeds

FOREST AND BIRD’S Forest Friendly Award scheme has spawned a major breakthrough in the fight against invasive weeds. Regional councils all over the country have adopted a generic Plant Pest Management Strategy to ban the sale and distribution of 110 plant species nationwide.

The brainchild of Northland Regional Council land management officer and Forest and Bird committee member Jack Craw, and Auckland Regional Council biosecurity officer Lance Vervoort, the concept has been successfully promoted to all regional and unitary authorities (except West Coast, which to date has failed to produce any management strategies for plant pests under the Biosecurity Act). Once notified by each regional council, the pest management strategy will be open for submissions. Some councils have already started this process. The strategy should mean that in most areas, after 1 July 1997, plants like Mexican daisy, smilax, white monkey apple, pampas and common heather may not be propagated, sold, offered for sale, distributed or even kept on premises where plants are sold. Many of these species have already been included in various regional strategies but much confusion arose, especially in the nursery industry, over where exactly the bans were to apply. Regional councils were also faced with the problem of growers in regions where plants were not banned, supplying plants to merchants in other areas where they were. Regional councils that might otherwise not have been part of the strategy were given every encouragement to join, partly because Forest and Bird w

branches were actively persuading garden centres all over New Zealand to join the Forest Friendly Awards. But, as a voluntary scheme, the awards were never going to get blanket coverage while some merchants, most notably the Palmers Garden Centres, declined to participate. The fact that at least 800 plant shops did join the awards meant that regional councils could hardly refuse to do likewise. Forest and Bird can be proud of its achievement in leading this campaign, as the pest management strategy adopts nearly all the plants on the Forest Friendly list. However, some growers and retailers remain opposed to the strategy as there is money to be made in selling pretty, but insidious, exotic plants. Once each regional council opens up the process for public comment, submissions supporting the strategy will be required to ensure that regional councils

don’t back down in the face of opposition.