Hi! Folk, I have been away for a few days and not up with my mail. Re: road side weed control.
About eight or nine years ago I managed to get through to a Pest Plant officer that nature will fill every void and spraying weeds is counter productive as when you knock out one lot another takes their place. One should instead plant competing plants that are of a nature that is more desirable. In Oz we have many native plants, ranging from grasses, through bushes to trees that naturally suppress weeds. We now have stopped spraying and instead direct seed native species with Oz designed and built equipment. A two person crew can about fifty kilometres of rip line a day and each side of a road may have two to five passes, so five to ten Ks a day can be treated and it is a once only process and in a few years, few if any weeds and no more cost. In the last few days we have driven about 1,500 Ks and saw about one hundred Ks in different stages from year one to year seven. It is good to see the changes and the new bird habitat etc. A selling point I made was that the tree development helped stop weeds coming from the road into farms. It makes the roads so much more pleasant to drive along and safer, by reducing cross winds. Gil
