Anyone with a holiday home in the Margaret River region is being urged to attend a free arum lily control workshop to help in the fight against the toxic invasive weed.
Nature Conservation Margaret River Region’s Arum Lily Blitz coordinates 2000 landholders as well as community groups and government agencies, supplying information, training and free herbicide in the battle against the region’s worst environmental weed.
While arum lilies are now being controlled across more than 23,000 in the Margaret River region, the not-for-profit conservation group says there are arum lily strongholds at properties owned by absentee landholders – allowing the weeds to continuously re-seed into surrounding areas.
A free information workshop will be held at the Margaret River Community Centre on Saturday, August 24 from 2pm-3.30pm to give holiday homeowners the knowledge, inspiration and free herbicide to tackle arum lilies on their property.
Or, landholders can attend one of two additional arum lily control workshops organised through Nature Conservation in tandem with the City of Busselton – the first on Monday, August 19 from 3.30pm-5pm at the Vasse Hall in Vasse, and the second on Saturday, August 31 from 2pm-3.30pm at Naturaliste Community Centre in Dunsborough.
See our Events page to find out more and reserve a spot!
“We see the amazing impact it can have when a whole street or community does arum lily control, and we also see how just one landholder can let down the neighbourhood by not controlling arum lilies. It means the seed easily spreads from one property and it can undo the hard work of neighbours,” said Arum Lilly Blitz coordinator Genevieve Hanran-Smith.
Arum Lily Blitz coordinator Genevieve Hanran-Smith
“That particularly applies to absentee landholders who aren’t always around to see the problem and might not have the time to carry out arum lily control. If you have a holiday home anywhere in the Margaret River region, particularly on a bush block or rural property, we’d love to see you at our free workshop to learn more about this weed and see a practical demonstration on how easy it is to carry out arum lily control.
“If you can’t make the workshop, there is plenty of information and instructional videos that you can access via our website at www.natureconservation.org.au. For landholders who cannot deal with arum lily infestations on their own, Nature Conservation’s Bush Regeneration Team can be hired to carry out arum control.”
Arum lilies hail from South Africa and are particularly devastating in WA’s South-West because they outcompete native flora, reduce habitat and food availability for wildlife, and change entire ecosystems with a dense and toxic monoculture.
The plants spring up from underground tubers in winter and their tall white flowers appear in spring. Applying a targeted herbicide during flowering is the only effective way to control them on a large scale. The Arum Lily Blitz is funded by the WA Government’s State Natural Resource Management Program.