Enrich Habitats for Life - Weed Management

Specifications

• Client: Condamine Alliance
• Scope:

  The project aims to engage regional landholders in target areas, and establish collaborative working relationships to reduce weed cover, revegetate or protect native vegetation, and increase native vegetation cover to 20 to 30%.

• Challenge:

  Many areas of the upper Condamine catchment have been over-cleared, leading to soil and land degradation, weed infestation, impacts on regional biodiversity, water quality and agricultural production. With the aim of reducing weed cover and increasing native vegetation cover to 20 to 30%, the project faced two key challenges:

  1. Engaging landholders to actively participate;
  2. Cost-effective approaches to managing weeds and increasing native vegetation cover. Prickly pear, Box thorn and Lantana present the main weed infestation issues.
• Solution:

  Verterra introduced a novel approach to weed management of combined mechanical (mulching) and biological treatment for noxious weed control (significantly reducing herbicide usage while enhancing soil organic carbon), combined with management to facilitate release of natural regeneration and targeted revegetation. The approach has generated excitement and been exceptionally well received by landholders directly engaged in the project, neighbours, other regional landholders, as well as the client.

• Benefit to Client:

  As a regional NRM manager, Verterra’s contribution enabled cost-effective weed control and vegetation management approaches that have enabled the client to deliver on their charter to improve catchment health for the benefit of both landholders and the environment.

• Market Sector: Environment and Natural Resources
• Capabilities:
  • Property management planning
  • Land access arrangements and stakeholder engagement
  • Vegetation and weed management
• Location: Queensland
• Year: 2013 - 2016