There are now more exotic plants growing wild in New Zealand than native plants. Many of these are threatening our regions parks and reserves, and others are invading our productive land. Many of these are considered weeds as they can cause serious harm to our environment, health risks to people or a loss to our agriculutural industries.

With so many weedy plants out there it is everyone's responsibility to do their bit to minimise their impact.

Blue morning glory infestation

For the following plants, regional intervention and management is considered appropriate. Individual pest plants require varying levels of control and management techniques.

Greater Wellington has identified four levels of control for pest plant species in the Wellington region. These are:

Regional surveillance
Total control
Containment
Site-led (Human health and boundary control)

In addition to the pest plants above there are many more that may be treated if they are considered to be a threat to a Key Native Ecosystem (KNE)

Useful websites

The following website pages may be useful to find out more information about pest plants

Auckland Council  a great search engine for many common pest plants and their control
Northland Regional Council General weed control information and identification
Southland Regional Council General weed control information and identification
Department of Conservation Weed impacts on our natural environment
Ministry of primary Industries pest plant related matters from the national Biosecurity agency
Landcare Research All you need to know about the biological control of weeds and future developments. 
Weedbusters national weed awareness programme.

In addition our neighbouring regional councils Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Horizons Regional Council both have pest plants which they focus on.

Competition

Every month there is a chance of winning a plant gift card in the Weedbusters 'name that weed' competition.