Battling Bridal Creeper
Bridal Creeper is one of the most resilient and hard to kill weeds of Western Australia—and it’s taking over bushland, roadsides, creeklines, and reserves nationwide. It is a Weed of National Significance (WoNS) and has been the target weed for Katanning and several surrounding shires for the last seven years.
Working together with the Landcare groups, Shires, Main Roads, spray contractors, and the State NRM Office, this weed has been sprayed on all roadside in Katanning, Woodanilling, Wagin, Dumbleyung and West Arthur for seven years. Our efforts have significantly reduced its spread. Recently, the shires of Kojonup, Narrogin and Kent have also joined the fight against Bridal Creeper, with management of this weed becoming an increasing priority as it smothers native habitat throughout these shires.
The program consists of a central coordinator organising the spray contractor to ensure that all roadside infestations (or as many as is feasible) are sprayed each winter. Because of its resilient nature, it takes at least seven years to kill a single Bridal Creeper plant. We have seen in Katanning, Wagin and Woodanilling, in particular, that ongoing systematic spraying of infestations, and raising awareness and training among the shire and community has shown a marked reduction infestation density.
For a bit more information about the program and for a few hints about managing this weed or other weeds of Western Australia, please see this blog post.