Draft Blue Mountains Weed Management Strategy 2025-2030 - submission guide
The following guide has been prepared by Blue Mountains Weed Action. Use this guide to make your submission by Tuesday 11 November.
Blue Mountains City Council are preparing a new 5-year weed strategy and are seeking input to their draft strategy. This is a rare chance to shape how Council fulfils its role in weed management in the Blue Mountains.
Blue Mountains Weed Action, formed earlier this year to identify better ways of tackling weeds in the mountains, held a workshop in August with local weed experts and identified key areas for reform.
There has been good work managing weeds in the Blue Mountains under the last 5-year strategy, but more needs to be done to address this growing issue.
To help you develop your own submission we have drawn on these ideas and our own analysis to complete this submission guide.
1. Establish a Local Weeds Advisory Committee
This will ensure improved dialogue, collaborative decision-making and community engagement.
The Strategy identifies the need to cooperate with other agencies and the community to provide effective weed management. However, at present, there is no formal structure to enable this.
The draft strategy proposes the establishment of a Blue Mountains Strategic Weed Management Working Group that meets yearly.
We propose the establishment of a Local Weeds Advisory Committee to collectively discuss and resolve weed management issues across the LGA. The committee would meet quarterly and include representatives from relevant BMCC Program areas, community representatives (such as from each catchment group), Traditional Custodians, State agencies (NPWS, DPIRD, WaterNSW, Crown Lands) and Greater Sydney LLS.
- Could be modelled on the Local Traffic Committee. This committee meets monthly and works well in bringing together key players, including the community, to cooperate and work strategically, discussing and developing solutions for a difficult policy area.
- The Strategy proposes the establishment of a Blue Mountains Strategic Weed Management Working Group that will meet yearly.
The committee could:
- Improve cooperation between major landowners.
- Improve State Agencies awareness and commitment to their own role in weed control.
- Consider compliance issues particularly relating to government landholders and large weedy private properties adjacent to natural areas.
- Identify new weed threats, cross tenure response and additions to Local Priority Weeds.
- Input to information provided to the community regarding weed problems and responses.
Benefits to Council may include:
- Support for difficult compliance action.
- Provision of a forum for strategic problem-solving.
- Access to a wide network for information on new weeds and improved response to them.
2. Improve compliance processes
Focus on the road and rail corridors and large properties adjoining natural areas. Transport corridors must use best practice control methods.
While Council’s Weed Compliance process is very successful in general there are problems, particularly in the Transport Corridor and on large properties adjoining natural areas. Resolution of these should be a priority action.
The compliance program does not appear to have clear priorities; they should be a mix of:
- priority catchments (p84) – it is difficult to see how this will be applied.
- areas adjacent to the National Park & Council bushland reserves and watercourses, particularly large properties and those with C2 zoning.
- high risk pathways including the transport corridor.
Transport Corridor
The Strategy should add Actions to address the weed management problem in the transport corridor.
This has been a matter of long-term community concern and Council has recently commenced action to ensure that Transport for NSW meets their obligations for weed control. It is too early to judge whether this will be sufficient to provide the needed long-term maintenance.
Barriers to successful weed control in the transport corridor which require resolution include:
- Safety and responsibility issues on highway margins.
- Ensuring work is done to best practice standards.
The establishment of a Local Weed Advisory Committee should assist with this.
Compliance – Large Properties
Weed compliance on large properties adjacent to the National Park or Council bushland should be given a high priority in the Action Plan.
Although there are relatively few large properties in the urban area, those that have uncontrolled weeds represent a significant proportion of the weed load in the area due to their size and frequent location on the edge of the urban area adjacent to natural areas. They may also contain areas of sensitive habitat such as Blue Mountains Swamps.
Such properties may have been cleared in the past, maintenance has been neglected, and they now contain serious weed infestations which have a large cost to treat. Many owners are cooperative and receive significant support from Council through the Bush Backyards program. Others are reluctant to take action.
The response to this issue should include:
- An enhanced inspection program to identify and document the problem.
- Processes to urgently provide the immediate weed control and a continued maintenance program.
- Improved public awareness of responsibilities and liabilities for owners and potential purchasers.
- Compliance action if the work is not carried out in full.
- If work remains outstanding, Council to undertake this at the owner’s expense.
More effective support for landholder weed management will require funding for an expanded Bush Backyards program that meets demand. It appears that the current Bush Backyards program supports only 83 landholders covering 273 ha whilst there is 342 km of interface between the urban area of the LGA and the National Park. The proposed performance measure is insufficient at just “> 50” landholders. Instead, an expanded program would support 100 landholders in the first year of the Strategy, increasing every subsequent year, until community demand is satisfied.
A similar approach should be taken to other properties which have areas of C2 zoning or adjoin natural areas.
Compliance – Capability Gap
This is another compliance issue which is discussed in the text of the Strategy and needs to be identified in the Action Plan.
BMCC’s Priority Weeds Enforcement Process, which is the basis of its compliance, is summarised in Appendix 2 of the Strategy. We understand that in practice landowners are only required to do as much work as they are capable of. This leaves a potential gap between what is done and what is needed. As discussed above this can be very significant on large weedy properties. Such a problem of untreated weeds on private property can also arise with owners who are reluctant to do the necessary work.
This issue should be identified in the Action Plan as needing an urgent response and resolution.
3. Improve the process for listing priority local weeds
We need improved listing criteria, faster assessment for new species and expert input.
Review the criteria and speed up the assessment for new species and provide the ability for expert input. The proposed Local Weed Advisory Committee should contribute significantly to this.
The precautionary principle should be applied in order to deal with the incursion of new weeds promptly whilst still manageable.
4. Strengthen community support, involvement & skills
Expand and promote the Bush Backyards and Resident Weed Support Program. Enable community weed reporting.
Bush Backyards is a well established, successful program. However it is at capacity and there is significant unmet demand. Given its effectiveness it should be fully funded and promoted. A more appropriate Performance Measure in the Action Plan would be to support > 100 Bush Backyards members in the first year of the Strategy, increasing every subsequent year, until community demand is satisfied.
Onsite weed support to residents should be expanded and promoted to provide landholders with strategic weed control advice and cover more than just listed ‘priority’ weeds.
Community weed reporting should be actively encouraged, not as a trial (as proposed) but as a permanent mechanism, commencing immediately.
5. Increase resourcing
Provide a greater share of Council resources to offset past reductions.
Resourcing appears to have declined over time as a proportion of Council’s overall budget.
A greater share of Council resources should be provided to Weed Management to offset past reductions in core funding. Efforts should continue to seek new sources of state and federal funds and to work with community groups to advocate for funding levels that match a Blue Mountains location within a World Heritage Area.
More stable, dedicated funds would allow for the rebuilding of the natural areas program, the reinstatement an in-house bush regeneration team, additional contactor hours and an expanded compliance and landholder education program.
Blue Mountains Weed Action will submit a detailed submission that will expand on these points and cover other areas where the Strategy could be improved.
How to make a submission
Please make your submission by 11 November
Email your submission to [email protected] and put ‘Draft Weed Management Strategy’ in the subject line.
Visit the Blue Mountains City Council Have your Say page to download the draft strategy and for more options for making a submission.
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