Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T01:29:48.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Progress toward Environmental Weed Eradication in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Clayson J. Howell*
Affiliation:
Science and Technical Group, Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 10-420, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Data on 111 environmental weed eradication programs carried out by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) have been collected and summarized. A total of 21 programs were discontinued, and 90 are ongoing. Within the ongoing programs, four have been successful in that no plants remain at any known infestations. All four of the successful eradications had a total area across all infestations of less than 1 ha (2.5 ac); however, many similar-sized programs were not successful. Correctly assessing the extent of infestations appears to be a major problem for discontinued programs. Some of the ongoing programs are progressing toward eradication, but this is taking much longer than initially anticipated. The strongest determinant of progress toward eradication was found to be the identity of the DOC administrative area, for reasons that are only speculative. The number and area of initial infestations had no effect on progress toward eradication. However, the rate at which new infestations were located was negatively correlated with progress. Across many programs, progress was restricted by inconsistent infestation visitation. After running for a decade, DOC's weed eradication strategy has yet to provide significant dividends. Environmental weed eradication is clearly more difficult than has previously been acknowledged in New Zealand.

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America

References

Literature Cited

Buddenhagen, C. E. 2006. The successful eradication of two blackberry species Rubus megalococcus and R. adenotrichos (Rosaceae) from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Pacific Conserv. Biol. 12:272278.Google Scholar
Cacho, O. J. 2004. When is it optimal to eradicate a weed invasion? Pages 4954 in Proceedings of the 14th Australian Weeds Conference. Sydney, Australia Weeds Society of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Cacho, O. J., Spring, D., Pheloung, P., and Hester, S. 2006. Evaluating the feasibility of eradicating an invasion. Biol. Invasions 8:903917.Google Scholar
Crooks, J. A. and Soule, M. E. 1999. Lag times in population explosions of invasive species: Causes and implications. Pages 103125 in Sunderland, O. T., Schei, P. J., and Viken, A., eds. Invasive Species and Biodiversity Management. Dordrecht, The Netherlands Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Cunningham, D. C., Barry, S. C., Woldendorp, G., and Burgess, M. B. 2004. A framework for prioritizing sleeper weeds for eradication. Weed Technol. 18:11891193.Google Scholar
Dodd, J. 1990. The role of ecological studies in assessing weed eradication programs. Pages 416426 in Proceedings of the 9th Australian Weeds conference. Glen Osmond, SA, Australia Crop Science Society of South Australia.Google Scholar
Harris, S. and Timmins, S. M. 2009. Estimating the Benefit of Early Control of all Newly Naturalised Plants: Science for Conservation 292. Wellington, New Zealand Department of Conservation. 25 p.Google Scholar
Hester, S. M., Odom, D. I. S., Cacho, O. J., and Sinden, J. A. 2004. Eradication of Exotic Weeds in Australia: Comparing Effort and Expenditure—Working Paper Series in Agricultural and Resource Economics. Biddeford, ME University of New England. 18 p.Google Scholar
Hobbs, R. J. and Humphries, S. E. 1994. An integrated approach to the ecology and management of plant invasions. Conserv. Biol. 9:761770.Google Scholar
Holloran, P. 2006. Measuring performance of invasive plant eradication efforts in New Zealand. N. Z. Plant Prot. 59:17.Google Scholar
Howell, C. 2008. Consolidated List of Environmental Weeds in New Zealand: DOC Research and Development Series 292. Wellington, New Zealand Department of Conservation. 42 p.Google Scholar
Mack, R. N. and Foster, S. K. 2009. Eradicating plant invaders: combining ecologically based tactics and broad-sense strategy. Pages 3560 in Inderjit, . ed. Management of Invasive Weeds. Heidelberg, Germany Springer.Google Scholar
Mack, R. N. and Lonsdale, W. M. 2002. Eradicating invasive plants: Hard won lessons for Islands. Pages 164172 in Veitch, C. R., and Clout, M. N., eds. Turning the Tide: The Eradication of Invasive Species. IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK IUCN.Google Scholar
Morfe, T. A. and Weiss, J. 2006. Optimising government investment at different stages of the weed invasion process. Pages 8790 in Proceedings of the 15th Australian Weeds Conference. Adelaide Weed Management Society of South Australia.Google Scholar
Myers, J. and Bazely, D. 2003. Ecology and control of introduced plants. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press. 313 p.Google Scholar
Myers, J. H., Savoie, A., and van Randen, E. 1998. Eradication and pest management. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 34:471491.Google Scholar
Myers, J. H., Simberloff, D., Kuris, A. M., and Carey, J. R. 2000. Eradication revisited: dealing with exotic species. Trends Ecol. Evol. 15(8):316320.Google Scholar
Olson, L. J. and Roy, S. 2002. The economics of controlling a stochastic biological invasion. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 84(5):13111316.Google Scholar
Owen, S. J. 1997. Ecological Weeds on Conservation Land in New Zealand: a database—January 1997 Working Draft. Wellington, New Zealand Department of Conservation. 67 p.Google Scholar
Owen, S. J. 1998. Department of Conservation Strategic Plan for Managing Invasive Weeds. Wellington, New Zealand Department of Conservation. 86 p.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. 2007. Evaluation or weed eradication programs: containment and extirpation. Divers. Distrib. 13:3341.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. 2009. Weed eradication—An economic perspective. Invasive Plant Sci. Manag. 2(4):360368.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. and Brooks, S. J. 2008. Evaluating progress in weed eradication programs. Pages 418420 in Proceedings of the 16th Australian Weeds Conference. Brisbane Queensland Weeds Society.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. and Lawes, R. M. 2005. Evaluation of weed eradication programs: the delimitation of extent. Divers. Distrib. 11:435442.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. and Lawes, R. M. 2007. Evaluation of the Australian branched broomrape (Orobanche ramosa) eradication program. Weed Sci. 55:644651.Google Scholar
Panetta, F. D. and Timmins, S. M. 2004. Evaluating the feasibility of eradication for terrestrial weed incursions. Plant Prot. Q. 19:511.Google Scholar
Parkes, J. P. and Panetta, F. D. 2009. Eradication of pests and weeds: progress and emerging issues in the 21st century. Pages 4760 in Clout, M. N., and Williams, P. A., eds. Invasive Species Management: A Handbook of Techniques. Oxford, UK Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rejmanek, M. and Pitcairn, M. J. 2002. When is eradication of exotic pest plants a realistic goal? Pages 249259 in Veitch, C. R., and Clout, M. N., eds. Turning the Tide: The Eradication of Invasive Species. Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.Google Scholar
Simberloff, D. 2001. Eradication of island invasives: practical actions results achieved. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16(6):273274.Google Scholar
Simberloff, D. 2003. Eradications—preventing invasions at the outset. Weed Sci. 51:247253.Google Scholar
Therneau, T. M. and Atkinson, E. J. 1997. An Introduction to Recursive Partitioning Using the RPART Routines. http://www.mayo.edu/hsr/techrpt/61.pdf. Accessed: Month DD, YYYY.Google Scholar
Wittenberg, R. and Cock, M. J. W. 2001. Invasive Alien Species: A Toolkit of Best Prevention and Management Practices. Wallingford, Oxon, UK CAB Intl. 215 p.Google Scholar
Woldendorp, G. and Bomford, M. 2004. Weed Eradication: Strategies, Timeframes and Costs. Canberra, Australia Bureau for Resource Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. 30 p.Google Scholar
Zavaleta, E. 2000. The economic value of controlling an invasive shrub. Ambio 29(8):462467.Google Scholar
Zavaleta, E. S., Hobbs, R. J., and Mooney, H. A. 2001. Viewing invasive species removal in a whole-ecosystem context. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16(8):454459.Google Scholar