Why the mulch?
Image of the same area shown in above photograph with the CNG mono-culture before treatment.
Chilean Needle Grass (CNG), Nassella neesiana is a Weed of National Significance, a declared pest plant and environmental weed with a risk rating “very high” in the ACT and NSW. It occurs in the grassy ecosystems where it out-competes indigenous species and can transform grassy woodlands into Chilean Needle Grass mono-cultures. It occurs mainly in areas with deep soil and a relative high availability of moisture at the lower mountain slopes particularly around nature reserve entry points, along tracks and behind backyards.
CNG is hard to manage. When it forms a mono-culture such as in parts of the reserve around the water tank and behind the Rivett Street backyards, herbicide treatment must be followed-up by other measures to suppress the germination from a vast seed bank stored in the soil. Initially FoMM worked on a small patch. After two rounds of herbicide treatment, the Friends including the Majura Mountain Scouts placed layers of mulch and planted and direct seeded local native ground cover to reduce the germination rate of CNG.
As we deemed the small trial to suppress new CNG growth successful we now extend our work along both sides of the drainage line.
Learn more about FoMM’s experiment to control Chilean Needle Grass: click here.
For further information of the drainage line project, visit https://majura.org/working-party-23-10-2022/
Images by Waltraud Pix
