Invasive plant species on the Otago Peninsula will continue to get a hammering from Save The Otago Peninsula (Stop) after receiving a major funding grant.
During the Otago Peninsula Community Board’s recent meeting, board members approved more than $1700 of funding to the volunteer organisation, so it could continue to battle introduced plants that are wreaking havoc across the peninsula.
Stop trustee Moira Parker said plants like Darwin’s barberry (a species native to southern Chile and Argentina), banana passionfruit (a high-climbing evergreen vine) and sycamore trees were "threatening the integrity" of native bush remnants.
"We don’t have many of those. They’re really precious."
She said the seeds from the invasive plants could be spread by birds and the wind.
"It can get into, or on the edge of, these native bush remnants, and grow.
"Sycamore grows fast, it matures quickly and spreads more seeds. Same with Darwin’s barberry.
"So over time, bush remnants can gradually become replaced and one ends up with a Darwin’s barberry woodland or a Sycamore woodland, or the canopy is completely over-topped with banana passionfruit vine."
She said the trust operated with help from volunteers and community grants.
"Several of these weeds are too big to dig out. If we could dig them out and not use any herbicide, that’s what we would do.
"But a large Darwin’s barberry, if it’s simply cut, it will grow again. So we need to use a small area of herbicide immediately on the cut stump so it won’t grow again.
"Our cost is herbicide."
She was delighted the community board approved funding of $1734 on the spot, to help the organisation continue its battle against the invasive species on the Otago Peninsula.
"I’m absolutely delighted," she said after the meeting.
"We were almost out of herbicide.
"It means that we have a keen group of people who can get out on Friday mornings, and keep going for the next two years."
