The Duck River estuary, a beautiful part of the northwest of Tasmania.
This area has an important ecological role in the lives of thousands of migratory wading birds.
The tidal waters are essential feeding grounds for the birds as they finish their arduous migration from the northern hemisphere.
The natural salt marsh these birds use to fuel this migration is under threat from an introduced menace, Spartina anglica, commonly known as ricegrass.
Ricegrass replaces the salt marsh between high and low tide points using the tide to spread its seeds.
This may look idyllic, but almost all of the vegetation at the edge of the river is invasive ricegrass.
The Duck River estuary is part of the Robin's Passage, Bullinger Bay important bird area.
It is the most important area for migratory shorebirds in Tasmania and is at the end of the East Asian, Australasian flyway.
The birds that arrive here start their journey in the tundra areas of the northern hemisphere and their journey takes them through China, Korea and Japan.
The Australian government has international agreements with China, Korea and Japan to protect this habitat.
The birds need to feed intensively to recover from the thousands of kilometres that they have flown.
It is important to eradicate the ricegrass to protect the feeding habitat of these birds.
If the ricegrass has overtaken their feeding grounds they will be unable to store enough energy to sustain them for the return journey.
I'm Sue Jennings from Circular Head Landcare Group and I'm the coordinator of the Ricegrass Eradication Programme in Circular Head.
Our group formed about five years ago and we were looking for good environmental projects at that stage.
Some of our group also do the way to bird counts and so we were aware of the issues with ricegrass on the mudflats.
We think we can make a difference here. Ricegrass has been planted around the state and this is the last area where it's actually considered eradicable.
There's a number of methods of getting rid of ricegrass. When seedlings are very small you can pull them out and collect them and take them away.
But as they get bigger they grow with big long roots and the most effective way of actually removing them is to spray them.
Primary control is often large scale spraying over a wide area.
The herbicide we use is very effective as it sticks to the ricegrass quickly and does its job before the tide comes in.
It's a grass selective herbicide and doesn't harm the native salt marsh plants.
Circular Head Landcare Group is committed to eradicating ricegrass in the Duck River estuary.
From raising funds, negotiating with stakeholders, planning and supervising the annual spray program to conducting long term follow up work.
This could be the most important thing our group will ever do.
If you would like to help us eradicate ricegrass in the Duck River estuary, please visit the link below or contact us via email.
Link here ch at gmail.com
Thank you.
