Weed control

Noxious weeds pose a serious threat to our wildlife. Most weeds are garden plants gone feral. Their seeds are spread by wind or birds or simply from garden waste that is dumped in native bushland.

If uncontrolled they smother native plants on which native wildlife depends for food and shelter, and often provide habitat for pest animals.

Weeds are particularly damaging to bushland that is already disturbed by the removal of native vegetation and erosion. Successful bush regeneration therefore often involves not only the removal of weeds but also the planting of native species to prevent new weed invasion.

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife has supported bush-regeneration in many areas across New South Wales including Lord Howe Island, The Gap in Sydney Harbour National Park, Boat Harbour Nature Reserve and Sydney Harbour’s Goat Island.

Post fire bush-regeneration

Bushfires are natural events that have shaped the Australian ecosystems for thousands of years. Many native plant communities depend on fire for a balanced diversity of species.

Human activities have however changed the landscape, and the combination bushland fragmentation, weeds and increased fire frequency pose a great threat to our bushland ecosystems.

Native forests are not adapted to annual fire events, and most of our annual fires are accidentally started by people outside our national parks. They can be caused by a cigarette thrown out of a car window or by back burning on private land that got out of hand.

The damage to our parks is rarely noticed by the public, unless the fire spreads and human property becomes a prey of the blaze.

Where fires burn our native bushland more frequently than nature intended, the fragile balance becomes disturbed. Weeds colonise the burnt forest floors before native species can grow back, and returning wildlife struggles to find sufficient food.

The Foundation provides funds to control weeds such as blackberries and lantana and for the planting of native species.

National parks that benefited from our bushfire funds include Blue Mountains, Lane Cove, Ku-ring-gai Chase, Garigal and the Royal National Park.

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