Cat’s Claw Creeper Eradication program

 Landholders who live along Baffle and Granite Creeks in the Gladstone Regional Council area, may have noticed a helicopter overhead recently, and wondered what the occupants were looking at.  It appears that a survey of the menacing weed, ‘Cat’s Claw Creeper’ was being carried out.  GPS points were recorded as the weed was identified along the creeks, as well as the level of infestation, which will result in a map being produced to assist in the control of the weed.  Cat’s Claw Creeper, which comes from Tropical America and is a declared weed in Queensland, is smothering the rainforest trees along many creeks within the Baffle Catchment, causing harm to the endangered rainforests found in the area.

A tender for the chemical control of Cat’s Claw Creeper was announced 2 weeks ago by the Burnett Mary Regional Group, and it is hoped that the successful tendered will be out in the field undertaking chemical control sometime in March.  The biocontrol for Cat’s Claw Creeper, the ‘leaf-sucking tinged bug’ will also be released at strategic locations within the catchment, to assist in the eradication of the weed.  Landholders who have properties adjacent to the creeks are encouraged to help maintain the weed once the chemical control has been undertaken in the next few months.

This survey was undertaken as part of the ‘Rainforest Recovery’ project coordinated by the Burnett Mary Regional Group and World for Wildlife Fund (WWF), with funding from the Federal government.

For more information about this project please contact Derani Sullivan on ph: 4181 2999 or email derani.sullivan@bmrg.org.au


An aerial view of a Cats Claw Creeper infestation in the Baffle catchment
  
 

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