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Rationale
Within communities across Natural Resource Management Regions,
as in the cities, there are many individuals with relatively
high levels of botanical expertise whose skills and interests
are rarely employed in the fight to prevent new weed incursions.
Whether retired professionals or accomplished amateurs, or
people currently employed in agriculture, the nursery or horticultural
sectors or other fields of vegetation management, there is
a much more substantial body of botanical expertise distributed
across the Regions than is usually recognised.
Using Queensland as a model for a possible later national
framework, this project aims to firstly identify this expertise,
and secondly develop and train a network focused on the detection
of new weed incursions. To this end the Weeds CRC has entered
into a special collaboration with the Queensland Herbarium.
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By July 2007 the National Weed Detection Project had expanded into three new areas; the Mackay-Whitsunday; Wet Tropics and Desert Channels regions, bringing the number of regions involved to five, covering a substantial area of Queensland.
The quarterly Weed Spotters newsletter continued until the end of the CRC project in May 2008, with articles on emerging weeds from Queensland Herbarium staff and members of the weed science community. Information on specimens submitted by Weed Spotters was also highlighted, providing local knowledge of weed issues.
Since July 2005 the project has delivered the following outcomes in Queensland:
- 1044 specimens submitted, of which 797 were naturalised specimens. This equates to 402 naturalised species.
- 61% of the naturalised species specimens submitted were incorporated to the Queensland Herbarium
- 1 new naturalisation to Australia
- 6 new naturalisations to Queensland
- 8 new naturalisations to a Queensland pastoral district
- 12 doubtfully naturalised species (Bostock & Holland 2007)
- 159 declared plants submitted under the Qld Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002
- 27 occurrences of seven Class 1 species
- 87 occurrences of 22 Class 2 species
- 45 occurrences of 13 Class 3 species
- 27 occurrences were notified to the Biosecurity Queensland
- 211 people trained in Weed collection
- 63 people trained in Weed recognition
- 28 community groups involved in the network,
- 474 people receiving current informaiton on new and emerging weeds in Queensland.
The project’s involvement with the Naturalised Flora Survey work was finalised, delivering verified baseline regional data that resulted in thousands of dollars saved in weed management costs. It also raised awareness of new and emerging weeds and delivered processes and protocols for the early detection and notification of weed incursions to Queensland.
A final report, Building a national, community-based model for preventing new weed incursions (Morton, J.) was prepared and delivered.
With the departure of Ms Jane Morton in January 2008 Mr Wayne Harris, who was also based at the Queensland Herbarium, continued the project until its conclusion in June 2008. By June 2008 good progress had also been made a guide for regional bodies on how to build a local Weed Spotter network. This document will be completed and published in 2008. |
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Weed Spotters at the Yeppoon Training Day
Photo: Jane Morton
Cutting weeds to press
Photo: Jane Morton
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Morton, J. (2007).
Weed Spotters: early detection of
invasive plants. Weed Watch 16, p. 8.
Morton, J. (2007). Weed Spotters: Volunteers detecting the new wave of weeds? Proceedings of the 9th Queensland Weed Symposium, Gold Coast, Qld, pp. 52-59.
Morton, S.J. (2006). A community-based weed detection network: developing a model for application in Australia. In Proceedings of the 15th Australian Weeds Conference. (Eds. C. Preston, J.H. Watts and N.D. Crossman). Weed Management Society of South Australia. pp. 751-754.
Morton, J. (2005). Establishing a Weed Detection Network. Proceedings of
the 8th Queensland Weed Symposium, Townsville. Queensland Weed Society
Inc. pp. 158-163. |
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Weed Spotters Newsletter
Autumn 2008 Edition (614KB)
Summer 2008 Edition (300KB)
Spring 2007 Edition (762KB)
Winter 2007 Edition (740KB)
Autumn 2007 Edition (657KB)
Summer 2006 Edition (798KB)
Spring 2006 Edition (703KB)
Winter 2006 Edition (394KB)
Autumn
2006 Edition (642KB)
Summer
2005 Edition (540KB)
Spring 2005 Edition (483KB)
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Weed
Collector's Manual: collect, prepare, preserve weed
specimens (1MB)
Weed
Spotters Banner (238KB)
Weed
Spotters Brochure (520KB)
Weed
Spotters Poster (225KB)
Weed Watch 12: see page 8
Weed
Watch No 6: see page 11 |
