Old man's beard proves tough to trim
Tuesday, 3 April 2018
Spending a week on the beautiful Te Pākeka/Maud Island is definitely a perk of the job for any Department of Conservation ranger. Our trip this week, however, isn't to do anything so glamorous as cuddling rare invertebrates, but to weed.
Weeding is to conservation what taking out the garbage is to all of us. It seems to constantly need doing, it's dirty work, and it tends to take on a life of its own if ignored.
Te Pākeka/Maud Island is home to several beautiful and endangered species, such as the Maud Island frog, and the fantastically long-legged giant weta, or wētāpunga. Without keeping on top of the weeds, their habitat would quickly get overgrown and become unsuitable.
The week starts off with an intensive quarantine process, cleaning 10 people's outdoor gear to near-surgical standards. All travellers to Te Pākeka/Maud Island lock themselves in a pristine white room to pick away at every seed, lurking insect or mud splotch on their gear. Our hope it that this process will prevent any pest plants, animals or soil-borne diseases from reaching the island.
**READ MORE:
* Weed busters hard at in Upper Hutt
* Time is up for Old Man's Beard in the Waikato
This week's focus is old man's beard (clematis vitalba), a vine known to climb and then suffocate our native bush. It is aptly named, as its flowers are fluffy and white, and, like any decent beard, if you don't trim it regularly you'll end up covered in the stuff.
So, how to deal with this pesky growth? In the usual way: sending 10 people out to walk parallel next to each other through the untracked bush of the island, looking for it. This technique is called 'grid-searching', and requires constant eye-peeling, an enthusiasm for getting flicked in the face by errant branches, and a good sense of humour so that you can be laughed at with dignity when you fall over.
Old man's beard is distinct from our native Clematis species for its five-leaf groupings and vines that are grey and look as though they've been clawed at by a frustrated cat.
The leaves are thin and distinctly bright, as opposed to the thicker and more luscious leaves of our native species. Everyone on our team 'gets their eye in' for the stuff pretty quickly, and soon the bush is filled with calls of 'I've got a biggie over here!'
On day one, we all look rather fresh-faced, but by the end of the week we have taken on a somewhat dishevelled look, and not in the pleasant Hugh Jackman way.
All the same, the Tenacious 10 have the unmistakable look about them of a job well done. With the help of handsaws, secateurs and some optimistically growing biceps, we have made a real dent in the ubiquitous Old Man's Beard. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the faces of our older and more male colleagues. The growth of the week has taken its toll.
This year's stint on Te Pākeka/Maud Island is now over, but in-between times the island's live-in rangers will wield their weapons and spend the odd day keeping the weeds at bay.
As we speed away from the island on the Waiata, smelling a bit suspect but looking jolly, I find myself contemplating my garden at home. I've been meaning to peruse the bushes out back in search of weeds, and what better way to spend the weekend than tackle that resident Old Man's Beard hiding down the back.