Erica the Constant Enemy – Goat Hills

Tuesday 2 June 2015

There  was a possibility that we would work with the Green Army at the Tolosa area, but their supervisor was injured so they were not there. We reverted to our original schedule and headed up to Goat Hills the easy way; in a 4wd driven by Hannah from Glenorchy City Council.
The southern section of our site was checked for Spanish Heath (Erica lusitanica) and plenty of plants were found, but most were spread about with a few more concentrated pockets. However eventually we reached a location that has presented problems over many years and we were again faced with the task of pulling out lots of small plants. It seems that the spot has a big seedbank and we did not have the time to remove all the juvenile plants; most are small and probably won’t reach flowering stage before we return.
Nearby Mount Wellington had plenty of snow cover and our work site is at 450 metres ASL and probably had snow a couple of days ago. Whether it was snow, rain or both it made the soil soft and allowed nearly all plants to be pulled out rather than needing cut and herbicide treatment.

 

Lunchtime Goat Hills
Hannah, Margaret, Greg, Brian and Rob