Kakadu National Park Landscape Symposia Series 2007–2009

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Acknowledgments

The weed management workshop was made possible thanks to the efforts of a group of dedicated individuals including Steve Winderlich, Tida Nou, Michelle Ibbett and Buck Salau (KNP), Dr Peter Bayliss, Dave Walden and James Boyden (eriss), Peter Cooke (Warddeken), Keith Ferdinands, Michael Schmidt, Steve Wingrave and Piers Barrow (Northern Territory Government) and Penny Wurm and Samantha Setterfield (CDU). The efforts of this group in pulling together the forum is much appreciated. Thanks also to Andra Putnis for facilitating the workshop, to eriss for use of the Jabiru Field Station, and to Ann Webb (Supervising Scientist Division) who prepared the final copy for publication.

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1 Introduction

The Weeds Management Workshop is the second in the series of symposia and workshops held by Kakadu National Park focusing on agents of landscape change.

The aim of workshop is to serve as a forum for knowledge exchange between stakeholders in the Kakadu region, including identifying management issues, emerging threats, knowledge gaps and research needs pertaining to weed management on a local, regional and national scale. The aim was to achieve this through an effective two-way transfer of knowledge between Kakadu National Park staff, researchers, the Kakadu Research Advisory Committee (KRAC) members, stakeholders and Traditional Owners.

The objective was to place this knowledge in a management context and pose questions to Park Managers and Traditional Owners regarding future management frameworks and research directions. The topics of remaining forums in this series are Fire, Climate Change and Feral Animal Management.

The symposium was held at the eriss Jabiru Field Station, Jabiru East, Kakadu National Park, on 27 and 28 of November 2007.

Over fifty participants from a wide range of stakeholders including government agencies, academic institutions, landholders, Traditional Owners and Indigenous Associations attended. There is a list of the participants on page iv.

The forum included an optional field trip on the afternoon of Monday 26 November followed by two days of presentations and workshops.

The field trip looked at:

Grassy weeds at Mudginberri paddocks
Salvinia at billabong on Magela floodplain
Para grass on Nardab floodplain (from Ubirr)

Topics presented at the symposium included:

National and Northern Territory perspectives on weed management
The West Arnhem Land perspective on weed managment
Threat to Western Arnhem Land: Weedy Time Bomb Project overview
Kakadu region perspective on weed managment
Incorporating dispersal ecology and simulation modelling into the management of plant invasions
Risk assessment and prioritising effort in weed management

Workshops were held on the following topics:

Weed management in woodlands (grassy weeds including gamba grass, mission grass, grader grass)
Floodplain/wetlands weed management (mimosa, salvinia, para grass, olive hymenachne, others)
Escarpment and riparian weed management

The intention is to feed as much of the outcomes of the forum into on-ground management and research as possible and this has already been occurring.

One of the clearest messages was the need for greater regional and across jurisdiction cooperation in training, sharing technology and on ground management and significant steps have already been taken to progress this.

Steve Winderlich

Natural and Cultural Programs Manager

Kakadu National Park

2 Strategic weed management: linking national and local perspectives

S Wingrave^¹

2.1 Introduction

Weeds are among a range of issues presenting a serious threat to Australia’s productive capacity, natural environment and in some cases human health. This threat is realised through negative impacts on production levels, increases in production costs, displacement of native plant and animal species and the contribution to general land degradation. In addition to this, weeds causing severe allergic reactions are contributing significantly to Australia’s health care costs.

It has recently been estimated that the cost of weeds to agriculture in Australia is in the order of $4 billion annually while the cost to nature conservation and landscape amenity is of a similar magnitude.

It is widely recognised that significant resources have previously been and are currently being used to address various weed issues and that regardless of this, weeds continue to remain one of the major land degradation problems across Australia.

It also recognised that in order to effectively manage the threats and subsequent impacts of weeds a well planned and coordinated approach is required. In some cases this will be the result of effective planning and implementation of these plans at a range of levels – from the local level through to the national level.

2.2 The National Weeds Strategy

Given the challenges posed by weeds, in 1991 the Commonwealth, State and Territory ministers’ for agriculture, forestry and the environment agreed to develop a National Weeds Strategy aiming to reduce the impact of weeds on the nation’s productive capacity and natural systems.

The National Weeds Strategy, initially released in 1997, was a document describing a series of goals, objectives and strategies for the purpose of increasing the level of consistent, efficient coordinated action against identified high priority weed species and potential species at all management levels across Australia.

The original Strategy made significant progress in weed management, however, the target issues remain a significant challenge. In addition to this, threats from factors including climate change, limitations on chemical use and increasing international trade and travel have added to the complexity and challenges of management.

The current Australian Weeds Strategy provides a framework that guides a consistent approach toward the management of priority weed issues across Australia. The Strategy highlights the need to prevent new weed incursions and establish consistent approaches to providing a response to incursions should they occur. The Strategy is also an integral part of Australia’s biosecurity programs and complements existing response strategies addressing a number of issues.

The Australian Weeds Strategy is based on the recognition and acceptance of 7 key principles:

Weed management is an essential and integral part of the sustainable management of natural resources for the benefit of the economy, the environment, human health and amenity.
Combating weed problems is a shared responsibility that requires all parties to have a clear understanding of their roles.
Good science underpins the effective development, monitoring and review of weed management strategies.
Prioritisation of, and investment in, weed management must be informed by a risk management approach.
Prevention and early intervention are the most cost effective techniques for managing weeds.
Weed management requires coordination among all levels of government in partnership with industry, land and water managers and the community, regardless of tenure.
Building capacity across government, industry, land and water managers and the community is fundamental to effective weed management.

The Strategy contains three goals and provides an outline of the objectives necessary for the achievement of these goals.

Goal 1 Prevent new weed problems

Objective 1.1: Prevent the introduction into Australia of new plant species with weed potential

Objective 1.2: Ensure early detection of, and rapid action against, new weeds

Objective 1.3: Reduce the spread of weeds into new areas within Australia

Objective 1.4: Implement weed risk management practices to respond to climate change

Goal 2 Reduce the impact of existing priority weeds problems

Objective 2.1: Identify and prioritise weeds and weed management problems and determine their causes

Objective 2.2: Implement coordinated and cost effective solutions for priority weeds and weed problems

Objective 2.3: Develop approaches to managing weeds based on the protection of values and assets

Goal 3 Enhance Australia’s capacity and commitment to solve weed problems

Objective 3.1: Raise awareness and motivation among Australians to strengthen their commitment to act on weed problems

Objective 3.2: Build Australia’s capacity to address weed problems and improve weed management

Objective 3.3: Manage weeds within consistent policy, legislative and planning frameworks

Objective 3.4: Monitor and evaluate the progress of Australia’s weed management effort

Since its adoption in 1997 a number of key achievements have been made implementing the Australian Weeds Strategy including:

National agreement on cost sharing arrangements for priority national eradication programs.
The development of a list of agreed national priority species, the Weeds of National Significance (WoNS) and subsequent development of agreed national strategies to address these species.
The establishment of guidelines and principles that promote consistent legislation and policy across jurisdictional boundaries.
The development and implementation of a pre-border Weed Risk Assessment system screening proposed imports.
An overall increase in the level of skills, understanding and coordination of weed management activities across government at all levels, industry groups and the community.