Submitted by Nigel Peck

After our last New Brighton work party posting someone asked “why the rush to clip Himalayan Blackberry right now”?

There is a very concrete and time sensitive answer.

The reason is because from March 12th until mid-August, removal of tree and shrub removal requires a qualified professional survey to make sure there are no active bird nests. We don’t have the resourses to do that – so our absolute last blackberry thicket removal work party has to be before March 12th.

We want to clear as much blackberry in the Park and Port project areas. It is not possible to dig out blackberry roots where blackberry grows among desirable vegetation so the only alternative is to clip the canes right to the ground at least three times each year to ‘starve’ out the plants. 

The best times for this are at in January – March, May – July and then from September – October. 

If we miss the first January to March blackberry clipping though and thickets remain, then the May – July shoot clipping is not possible and the overall effort is negated for the year. So the next three weeks will determine how much BB shoot clipping can happen in infested areas from now to September.

In addition the blackberry thicket clearing also allows us to remove Scotch Broom, Purple (Tufted Vetch), White-sweet Clover, Morning Glory, Reed Canary Grass and Tansy, again, over the next six months nin areas that currently have BB cane. 

This is important – so – if you can help in the next few weeks (as they say in donation requests) what you accomplish right now will be multipled many times over.

Hopefully we will see you at the park for one of the work parties!