Leon Pericles is one of the most visited artists during Margaret River Open Studios, but this year he is using his high profile to campaign for Nature Conservation Margaret River Region’s Arum Lily Blitz.
A prolific printmaker, painter and sculptor whose celebrated career has spanned decades, Pericles developed a love of the Australian environment growing up in outback WA, felt through his art that affectionately depicts our great outdoors.
As a long-term Margaret River resident, he’s also an enthusiastic supporter of Nature Conservation’s Arum Lily Blitz and has spent years helping to control the invasive weeds on his 5-acre property near the river at Burnside. First the priority was eradicating another problem weed – blackberry – followed by removing any arum lilies so they did not establish a foothold.
“Every year I check the property and remove any arum lilies. That way they never get a chance to establish. However, on some other properties in the region, they are staggeringly thick. It’s considerable and it shows how landholders need to work together and all do our bit,” Pericles said.
An official ambassador for Nature Conservation, Pericles is a regular at local workshops and community volunteer days, lends his voice to calls for more urgent environmental action, and advocates for awareness and participation in protecting our precious bushland and biodiversity. He urged anyone with arum lilies on their property to sign up to the Blitz.
“Get in touch with Nature Conservation, sign up and get involved,” he said. “It’s an exciting thing to be part of. It’s a good way to get connected to the land, and you can tap into an incredible amount of knowledge, advice and assistance when it comes to how to control arum lilies, what species to choose once you’ve got rid of them, and generally how to look after our precious ecosystem.”
Pericles said he loved his bush garden even more than his art. But he said environmental weeds like arum lilies combined with a drying climate was putting more pressure on bushland everywhere across our region.
“I’ve never seen the dry as bad as it was this year. Thirty years ago, there were rock pools that always held water and this year they were bone dry. They disappeared. We were losing trees on our bush block – marris and jarrahs. But there are many things we can do. We can make sure we leave water out for wildlife, plant native species to create habitat, and do whatever we can.”
He said conservation in general and the Arum Lily Blitz in particular would be his key messages to up to 650 people a day who visit his home during Margaret River Open Studios.
“I love anything that grows, and the insects and animals that come with it. But the situation we’re in now is dire,” he said. “The environment needs our help, desperately, because we have gone too far. We need to shoulder a lot more. We need to get stuck in. We need everyone involved because we’re running out of time. It’s very, very urgent.”
Now in its sixth year, the Arum Lily Blitz is funded by the WA Government’s State Natural Resources Management Program and coordinates government agencies, community groups and landholders against the threat of arum lilies, while supplying free herbicide and training to landholders. Almost 2000 landholders are signed up to the Blitz and, along with government agencies and volunteer groups like the Friends of the Cape to Cape Track, arums are being controlled over more than 23,000 hectares in the Margaret River region.
The weed species is so devastating because it outcompetes native flora, reduces habitat and food availability for wildlife, and replaces native plants with a dense, toxic monoculture. Arum lilies start appearing in winter and flower in spring. For landholders on larger properties who cannot deal with arum lily infestations on their own, Nature Conservation’s Bush Regeneration Team can be hired to carry out arum control.
Free herbicide can be collected from the Nature Conservation office as well as from supporting businesses Busselton Agricultural Services, Dunsborough Rural, Vasse General Store, Cowaramup Agencies, Karridale Agencies and True Value Hardware in Augusta.
Photos: (Top) Leon Pericles at a Nature Conservation community conservation day. (Middle) Leon Pericles with Nature Conservation Margaret River Region general manager Drew McKenzie. (Above) An arum lily infestation.