Cobar Shire landholders who have been working closely with Western Local Land Services (Western LLS) to improve and sustain the condition of natural resources are now beginning to see positive results from the work they’ve undertaken.
The local landholders are part of a group of 25 landholders across the western area who have been contracted to carry out control works over close to 25,000 hectares for Afri-can boxthorn, mesquite and cactus, using a variety of control methods suitable for local conditions.
Senior Land Services Officer, Andrea Cash-mere said one landholder is getting very good results using granular herbicide applied at the base of boxthorn plants.
“This method is the most time efficient and effective for them because the plants are scat-tered over a large open grassland.
“Opportunistic control is also undertaken while mustering sheep,” Ms Cashmere said.
Contract brush cutters are also being used in sensitive ecosystems.
“This is a great method of control as there is little soil disturbance and no suckering of boxthorn from roots left behind, as can hap-pen with other mechanical removal,” she said.
“The landholders know what works for them and the country they manage.”
With African Boxthorn out competing the native understory and altering the structure of the vegetation community, as well as being a haven for pest animals such as foxes and rab-bits, the control works are being carried out in targeted areas to help protect Plains-wanderer habitat and Coolibah Black-Box threatened ecological communities.
In addition to this work, Western LLS is continuing to work with landholders to bio-logically control cactus using cochineal in-sects, with the insects attaching themselves to the host cactus drawing nutrients and moisture from the plant, eventually killing it.
Landholders or groups looking for further information on this program, or weeds man-agement throughout the Western region in general, can contact Western LLS or find more information at www.lls.nsw.gov.au.
This project is supported by Western LLS through funding from the Australian Govern-ment’s National Landcare Program and the NSW Government.
