Early invader weeds

Invasive species management, including weed management, is an integral component of any landscape or reserve scale conservation program. The benefits of a preventative and early intervention approach has been adopted in many parts of the world with great success.

The WESI Project was created to promote these benefits and enable Victoria to adopt this approach, with a focus on high risk invasive weeds that are in the early stage of invasion and threaten biodiversity. We work with public land and biodiversity managers anywhere in Victoria.

The WESI Project and several other weed management projects are funded by the Victorian Government through the Weeds and Pests on Public Land program.

Weed management

Weed activities fall into four broad categories: prevention, eradication, containment and asset-based protection.

Better understanding of these different management approaches means that public land managers can make informed decisions, invest resources wisely, and have better biodiversity outcomes.

Weeds at the early stage of invasion (early invader weeds) are plants that have naturalised and started to spread and their eradication is extremely important for the protection of Victoria’s biodiversity.

Eradication is the elimination of every single individual (including propagules e.g. seeds and buds) of a species from a defined area in which recolonisation is unlikely to occur.

Berry Flower Heath (Erica baccans) is one of many environmental weeds in Victoria moving into new areas. Image: Kate Blood

The early invader manual describes the components of the framework and is a great place to start.

WESI Early invader manual (PDF, 13.3 MB)
WESI Early invader manual (accessible version) (DOCX, 292.6 KB)

For those wanting more detail about each step of the framework, see the following six guides. By following the step-by-step information in the series of guides, public land managers can improve their decision making to plan and undertake work.