WEED IT & WEEP
If New Zealand’s exotic weeds could talk, they’d give similar glowing accounts to those of any happy immigrant family.
In their native country, the environment was harsh, survival a daily struggle. Lack of food and water, little shelter, wild animals apt to have them for dinner. Many in their community perished, and no one cared.
New Zealand, with its high rainfall, mild climate and benign fauna, has been a paradise destination for many exotic plants since European settlement. But in many cases, there has followed an evil version of “togs, togs, undies”. Yesterday’s cherished garden plant has become today’s rampant weed, not just an unsightly nuisance but a conservation and even an economic threat.
A recent stocktake by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, has found that although New Zealand is doing plenty to combat weeds, it has almost no idea whether it’s making any progress.
Given this country’s two main land masses are among the world’s most exoticweed-inhabited islands, there’s little question New Zealand’s existing climate is hopelessly hospitable to exotic plants – and with global warming, set to get more so.
One study on conifer spread says plantation and self-naturalised pines could occupy a quarter of New Zealand’s land mass in as little as 15 years unless seedling eradication is drastically improved.
As Upton’s pest-weed report, “Space Invaders”, warns, climate change will exacerbate the weed threat in ways we can’t even predict. Scientists in Europe and North America are already reporting that warming has weakened the health
