National Parks and Wildlife is undertaking a five-day aerial spraying program on Montague Island this week using its helicopter flying out of Narooma.
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The spraying using the specialised chopper-mounted equipment should continue until Saturday, weather dependent as winds less than 10 knots are required.
Kikuyu grass and rambling dock are the main targets in particular on the inaccessible northern end of the island where these weeds threaten nesting seabirds.
Rangers were marking out hot spots using flags earlier this week in preparation for the spraying to begin.
National Parks is developing the next 10-year Seabird Habitat Restoration Project. Area manager Preston Cope has said phase two of the program would focus on northern part of the island.
This part of the program would not cheap because of the inaccessibility of the north and the plan was calling for a mobile herbicide unit and the special helicopter-mounted boom sprayer being used this week.
Kikuyu grass has long been an issue on the island and the Seabird Habitat Restoration Project was instituted to specifically assist the little penguins, petrels, shearwaters, terns and other birds that nest and breed on the island.
Weed spraying and even burn programs have seen the field officers taking on the introduced grass. This was then backed up with the planting of native species such as lomandra grasses and Banksia trees.
There has been some considerable success with the walk from the wharf to the lighthouse now almost unrecognisable with now tall shrubs and trees complete with quails and rail birds in the clean undergrowth replacing the tangles of Kikuyu that once ensnared penguins and blocked access to nesting areas.
National Parks meanwhile recently announced an opportunity to spend up to six days on the island thanks to funding obtained by Narooma National Parks and Wildlife Service to undertake weed control works.
SCPA South East Producers group members have been involved in the volunteer weed program that is targeting some of the revegetated areas on the island subject to vine infestations, particularly Morning Glory (Ipomea sp.), Dolichos Vine and Rambling Dock (Acetosa sagittata).