Independent Review of Council’s Herbicide Use
Council applies pesticides in a range of circumstances to manage pests in public places. When implementing works in outdoor public places, including weed control works, Council considers a holistic and integrated approach and therefore utilises a ‘toolbox’ of management options. These include spraying and stem injection with appropriate herbicides at approved rates, mechanical machinery, manual removal techniques, biological controls and other bush regeneration techniques.
Following increasing community concern regarding the health and residual environmental impacts of herbicides for weed management, Council has resolved to review its herbicide use.
The review is to include:
- assessment of Council’s current herbicide use including costs, type of product, quantity used, labour time and areas of application
- a literature review on international and Australian considerations of Herbicides in use and trials of alternative herbicide products and methods
- stakeholder engagement which will identify the areas in the Shire that are of greatest concern regarding herbicide use
- a 6-month trial period of herbicide alternative/s in sites identified in (iii) above
- a comparison assessment between Council’s current herbicide practices ((i) above) and the adoption of herbicide alternative practices ((iv) above) and
- review and provide recommendations for alterations to Councils Pesticide Use Notification Plan (2014) in accordance with findings of (i)-(v) above.
The review is complete and available to view here: https://www.bellingen.nsw.gov.au/Services/Our-Natural-Environment/Invasive-Plants#section-1