Community group fighting Old Man’s Beard in the Motueka Catchment

A group of Brooklyn residents started a local group to tackle the issue of Old Man’s Beard (OMB) in August 2023 after attending a Motueka Catchment Collective weed workshop at Stanley Brook to learn how to deal with the rapidly increasing spread of Old Man’s Beard in our township.

They called themselves the Brooklyn OMB group, affectionately known as the BOMB Squad and have a mailing list of 19 locals.  They run a monthly Saturday morning working bee chopping and poisoning OMB in the immediate Brooklyn area.  Usually, eight or nine people turn up to each working bee.

Kim says “We don’t remove the vines, we curtain them (chop them off at shoulder level) and chop again at ground level then immediately apply Bamboo Buster poison to the cut.  

Our target area is roughly from Brooklyn School to the Brooklyn Reserve and from the start of the Motueka River West Bank Rd along to Kayak Corner (we hope to reach the Motueka River by the end of this year!).  The intention is to kill the OMB in this specific area and manage regrowth/re-infestation long term.  It won’t save the world but it does mean that a little group of locals are doing their bit to manage this pest plant.”

The group have enjoyed the support of the Motueka Catchment Collective, providing free poison, secateurs and saws. Kim also says “we are indebted to the late Roger Gaskell for supporting our group from the outset, both with his knowledge and working bee labour.”

In the long term, the group may continue their OMB eradication further up the Brooklyn Valley and they hope to broaden community involvement by establishing a native planting project along the Brooklyn stream.