Environmental Pest Management

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Weeds

Bridal Creeper, one of 20 Weeds of National Significance, smothers native vegetation and is a serious environmental weed

Weeds pose a major threat to our biodiversity. Environmental weeds are weeds that are detrimental to the conservation of native ecosystems. Environmental weeds are found in all areas of native vegetation, however they are more common in highly disturbed sites such as along the edges of remnant vegetation, grazed areas, watercourses, railway corridors and road reserves.

The impacts of environmental weeds on ecosystem function include:

• change in or loss of native plant species and ecological communities due to competition with weeds for resources
• change in or loss of native animal species due to altered habitat
• change in water patterns
• change in nutrient content of soil
• change in fire patterns, eg an increase in grassy weeds alters the fuel load and intensity of fires.

Serious environmental weeds found in West Region include Bridal Creeper (a Weed of National Significance), Aleppo Pine, Boxthorn, Boneseed, Buffel Grass, Horehound, Olive, Onion Weed, Salvation Jane and a number of introduced grasses, including Perennial Veldt Grass.

Recovery

Releasing flea beetles, a biological control for Salvation Jane, in Lincoln National Park

We are working with the community to conduct coordinated landscape-scale programs to control environmental weeds in our region, predominantly in our West Region parks and reserves. We aim to link up weed control in our protected areas with similar work being undertaken on private land, SA Water land, and through the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board's Integrated Pest Management Program.

Some of the actions that we are implementing to reduce the threat to biodiversity caused by weeds include:

• weed control to prevent the spread of and remove established weed species, eg Boxthorn removal on offshore islands
• release and maintenance of biological controls to manage weeds, eg leafhopper and rust fungus biological controls for Bridal Creeper, flea beetle for Salvation Jane, and plume moth for Horehound
• management to prevent the introduction of new weeds, eg through best practice hygiene methods
• weed infestation mapping, and development of district-wide weed management strategies and weed control plans, to ensure that weed control is strategic and undertaken in an efficient and effective way.

Pest Animals

Feral camels browse and trample native vegetation and are a serious environmental pest

Introduced animals are also a major threat to the biodiversity of Eyre Peninsula and the Far West. This threat can lead to:

• loss of native animal species due to predation, eg predation by cats and foxes
• loss of native animal species due to competition for resources, eg competition with rabbits and goats
• lack of regeneration of native plants due to introduced grazers
• increased spread of weeds and disease
• soil erosion, eg caused by hoofed stock and rabbits.

Serious environmental pest animals found in West Region include Common Starlings, Feral Cats, Foxes, Rabbits, Goats, Feral Honeybees and One-humped Camels.

Under Commonwealth law, the impacts to biodiversity of a number of pest animals are listed as key threatening processes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. Threat abatement plans have been developed for the following key threatening processes that are pest animal issues in our region:

• Competition and Land Degradation by Feral Goats
• Competition and Land Degradation by Feral Rabbits
• Predation by European Red Fox
• Predation by Feral Cats.

For more information on key threatening processes see:

• Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts Key Threatening Processes web page.

Recovery

We are working with the community to conduct coordinated landscape-scale programs to control pest animals in our region, predominantly in our West Region parks and reserves. We aim to link up pest animal control in our protected areas with similar work being undertaken on private land, SA Water land, and through the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board's Integrated Pest Management Program.

Some of the actions that we are implementing to reduce the threat to biodiversity caused by pest animals include:

Fox baiting

• fox baiting (land-based and aerial) in partnership with Friends of Parks groups and land-holders
• rabbit control including mapping warrens, warren destruction, and poisoning
• goat culling (shooting and trapping) in Gawler Ranges National Park in partnership with the Hunting and Conservation Branch (SA) of the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia
• feral bee management
• opportunistic camel control, mainly in Far West District parks.

We monitor the outcomes of these pest animal control actions by monitoring:

• pest animals, eg spotlight surveys and bait station monitoring
• grazing pressure, eg vegetation exclosure monitoring
• predation pressure, eg Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby and Bush Stone-curlew surveys.

More information

• Environment Reporting - Introduced Species web page
• Lower Eyre Pest Management Group website
• Assessing the abundance and impacts of feral camels in the Great Victoria Desert report (550Kb PDF)
• Strategic management of Aleppo Pines on Lower Eyre Peninsula to maximise biodiversity conservation outcomes report (700Kb PDF)
• West Coast Babbler - Winter 2006 Edition: Feral foes - weeds and pest animals (200Kb PDF).