Reefcare Report: Weed removal and Wildlife

Reefcare Reports

7 June

Beautiful shot of Long Reef rock platform and grass slopes

The June working bee's primary focus was pulling out non-native pig’s face and planting a tray of 30 plants around the western area of the site.

The weather was perfect, we were welcomed by lots of wildlife. We have found evidence of a bandicoot as there is a burrow along the slope. We found a fuller’s rose weevil while weeding pig’s face. We also found a new sapling of banksia under a tea tree and unfortunately found a new weed has been introduced to the site, called the African fireweed. Two Ospreys flew over who had caught a fish each and magpies foraged nearby hoping to catch worms in the unearthed soil.

Self Seeded Banksia Found under a Tea Tree – Photo by Stefanie

Australian Magpie standing on dead pig’s-face - Photo by Stefanie

We pulled out a large amount of pig’s face on the slope. You can tell it is non-native by the long green leaves which are like a carpet over smaller native plants.

Karina weeding Pigs Face – Photo by Stefanie

The Maroubra snail was first discovered on site two years ago, it is very rare and found again today, it has a brown shell.

There was a fire ant nest nearby where we were planting meanwhile placing water crystals in the soil.

Julie did a bag of asparagus crowns and either dug or poisoned them: “I continued working in the area below the Whale Sculpture, focusing on the removal of Asparagus Fern. Where the plants were easily accessible, I cut around the crown with a jab saw, and cut off stems, roots and the globular water nodules.”

The first photo shows a trimmed crown about to be cut out. It is only the crown that needs to be removed. The second photo shows trimmed crowns on the bag.

“Where the plant is growing under native bush or other obstacle, I join stems into a ' ponytail', trim the top, scrape the stems and spray with glyphosate.” The third photo shows some 'ponytails' tinged blue with glyphosate. “These will be checked next time I'm on site. I'm confident of asparagus death!”