Green for the wrong reasons: rain blooms more invasive buffel grass throughout Alice Springs

An invasive weed which has planted it tendrils throughout the Alice Springs and the Uluru region has now faced its newest competitor: the local landcare groups.

A Todd River red gum with the buffel grass from its base cleared.

Recent rain in Alice Springs has put the fight against buffel grass back into the forefront as the town becomes green with the invasive weed.

While the March rains saw Alice residents rejoicing at the Todd River flowing, the rains have caused a lot of buffel grass growth, according CDU Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods associate professor Christine Schlesinger.

“In many areas around Alice Springs it was already there and already a problem but buffel grass spreads and becomes more dominant during high rainfall periods,” she said.

“In areas where it may have been already but less abundant will have increased, and even where it was already very abundant it has likely become even more dominant.

“This is especially so when fire is brought into the mix – if an area with buffel grass is burnt and then it rains, buffel tends to recover much more quickly than many native species and becomes even more competitive.”

The buffel has even made its way to Uluru, according to Ms Schlesinger, who said she was seeing it in areas she never had before.

“The buffel was already very bad around Alice and in many other areas, but the problem continues to get worse and spread further with every large rainfall event and as it interacts with fire,” she said.

The Landcare groups clearing buffel around the Todd River red gums.

The increase in buffel grass around the town led Alice Springs Landcare to organise multiple clean-ups, with the latest taking place on the Todd River on Sunday.

Organiser Sue Morrish said the cleaners targeted the buffel which had set-up around the base of trees.

“Around a dozen volunteers hand-weeded buffel grass from around the base of the old river red gums, to try and protect the trunks from falling in hot, buffel-fuelled fires,” she said.

“These fires are becoming hotter and more frequent, and are creating a loss of habitat for the birds, bats, and other creatures that make their homes in the hollows.”

The fire risk from the grass led 40 organisations to call for it to be declared a weed, while NT environment minister Kate Worden met with environmental campaigners and Aboriginal advocates in Central Australia at the start of April.

Minister Worden established a “Weed Advisory Committee to develop as buffel grass management strategy” – which was one of the findings of the buffel grass technical working group – with the “view of declaring buffel grass a weed”.

“The strategy will be completed within three months and builds on and extends the work of the technical working group and their recommendations around regulation, funding, research, and education,” Minister Worden said in March.

Originally published as Green for the wrong reasons: rain blooms more invasive buffel grass throughout Alice Springs