Invaders
Saturday 18 May 2019
Marriotts Falls Track
The work on this day involved clearing back vegetation growing over the track to Marriotts Falls and the removal of invading weed species.
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| Clearing the overgrowing vegetation at the start of the Marriotts Falls Track, Shirley and Sue |
The first 200 metres of the track is through a river reserve that previously had a pine forest and with the pines gone the native vegetation has returned with some vigour. A hardened track was created in 2013 and 2014 and now needed some of the plants cleared, particularly prickly wattle. The area is also subject to reinvading pines and the incursion of foxgloves, and whilst all the pines were able to be removed, some patches of foxgloves remain for another occasion.
The fact that there was a lot of foxgloves prompted us to head to the open area where the Westerway Primary School kids had planted natives. Last October (2018) we removed a sudden influx of foxgloves prior to kids planting and we were concerned what we might find there. We were disappointed because there were more of these weeds than last time, but we managed to remove most although no doubt a few small ones escaped our notice. A few Spanish heath were also noticed and dug out.
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| Peter removing foxgloves |
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| Shirley tightening and straightening stakes |
The first planting was done in July 2017 and many of these, especially silver wattle, were quite tall and well above the top of the tree guards, which we removed. Wallaby browsing of many plants was very notable at the point where the tips reached the top of the tree guards. Howard suggested an experimental ring of guards using the used stakes and guards, and three of these were constructed.
Of the newer plantings from 2018, a number had died, but overall there remained a large population of these plants.
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