Best Practice for On-ground Property Weed Detection

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2008. Best Practice for On-ground Property Weed Detection. [Online] (Updated July 9th, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/2582 [Accessed Tuesday 26th of April 2011 12:42:54 AM ].

Through phone surveying of landholders and noxious weed officers, this project better identified current weed surveillance levels and practices on farms and ways to improve weed detection. Because of the large area of Australia owned and managed by farmers and graziers, the project has used this information to develop a guide for landholders, on how to look for weeds, get them identified and report them to the relevant authorities.

This project has shown that Australian farmers are alert to new weeds, and have a reasonably high level of commitment to detection and control such species, whether they are so called ‘alert weeds’, ‘weeds of national significance’, or simply weeds that are well established in Australia but spreading to new areas and properties.

Weed inspectors have also been shown to play a vital role in supporting and facilitating weed detection and control. While sometimes differing in opinion to farmers, the legally sanctioned surveillance of weeds by inspectors compliments the generally voluntary approach adopted by farmers.

Overall, there was seen to be a low level of government commitment to weed detection. Given the high environmental, social and economic impact of weeds, this situation needs to be remedied, since early detection is much more cost-effective than later cure.

Aims

The purpose of this research is to:

Assess current weed surveillance levels and practices amongst landholders and noxious weeds inspectors; and
Identify ways to improve weed detection by these groups on-ground.

Background

There have been attempts to develop guidelines for professional surveying and mapping of nationally significant weeds and in national parks, weed spotting networks, and surveillance techniques for weeds that have already been detected in Australia such as branched broomrape. However, a large proportion of Australia is privately owned or managed by farmers and graziers, and yet no one has undertaken a comprehensive study to ascertain current weed surveillance levels and practices amongst these landholders or the noxious weeds inspectors (or their equivalents in each state) that already regularly check properties for new and existing invasive plants.