Old Man’s Beard MUST GO signals the Motueka Valley community!

Old Man’s Beard MUST GO signals the Motueka Valley community!
An impressive fifty plus community members arrived at the Pokororo Hall on Sunday 11 August to help remove Old Man’s Beard from native bush alongside the Motueka River West Bank Road. These sort of numbers turning up for a weeding event signals the concern and motivation our community feels towards weed control in our catchment.

Included in those attending were:

• 7 members of the Motueka Valley Volunteer group who have been weeding for many years in the Motueka Valley. Group leader Bruce Stare.
• 8 members of the Nelson Trout Fishing Club, including Jacob Lucas, member of the Pest Management Thematic Group of MCC.
• 2 members of the Brooklyn OMB Group – the Bomb Squad, including Kim Burridge.
• A number of people all the way from Nelson.
• People who walked and biked from their homes.

The day was lead by Andy Wards and Bruce Stare, from the Pest Management Group of MCC. Bruce explained to the large group the method for removing the vines. The first step was to cut the vines at about adult head height then at ground level. Then the ends need to be pasted with a gel herbicide to kill it off. The roots of the vine then need to be clipped off that train along the ground.
The vine often runs a considerable distance along the ground before finding a tree to climb up. Vines running along the ground can be removed by lifting at the cut end and clipping the rootlets that anchor it to the ground. Go back as close as possible to the point of germination, cut there and paste a final time.

He then explained that Andy would be coming back through in the spring to deal with all the other pest plants in the bush.

After the briefing everyone was divided into weeding teams with a leader from the weeding group, and allocated an area of bush to weed. Off they went across the Graham bridge to the weeding site.

After two hours of weeding where the seven weeding teams completed the 700 metre strip of native bush next to the road, it was time to return to the Pokororo Hall for tea and coffee, bikkies and some home made soup!

MCC and the Pest Management Group would like to thank everyone who came along and supported this event. We would also like to thank everyone involved in organising the event, including Bruce and Andy who volunteered a considerable amount of their time to ensuring the event was successful. From Bruce:

I was thoroughly impressed by the work effort and enthusiasm of everyone present to free this bush remnant from OMB. We probably cleared twice the length of ground I had expected, especially considering the intensity of the infestation at the Graham River end.