Weed spraying trial on Yass Valley roads

Yass Valley Council has allocated $50,000 from the 2019-20 roads maintenance budget for the trial on selected roads.

Further funding of $200,000 for maintenance works associated with the spraying of priority weeds along council managed and maintained road reserves will be considered in the 2020-21 budget deliberations.

A limited trial is being undertaken on selected roads to assess the benefits of the project and gauge the financial implications.

The program allows one-month treatment of blackberry and other priority weeds including African Lovegrass, Bathurst Burr and St John's Wort.

The roads included in the project are:

These roads represent distributor roads within the Local Government Area. Yass Valley Council currently has the ownership of public road reserves within NSW with around 1470 km of road under its care and control.

Carolina Merriman, Yass branch chair of NSW Farmers, has welcomed the decision to start the road reserve weed spraying trial.

"The council has taken on board the responsibilities and duties and put it into action which is a great outlook for Yass community and maintaining the weeds around the district," she said.

"It's a great outcome to show that we take weeds seriously and they are a priority around the district.

"Now the council has got the ball rolling for the first step for everyone to improve the controlling of weeds around the district.

"Helping to control weeds on the roads by council significantly helps and encourages farmers to control existing weeds on their properties and to stop the infestation of new species. The trial should be implemented for long term usage and control of weeds."

Megan Wyllie, the Invasive Species Coordinator at Local land Service, said that weeds are a massive challenge for all councils.

"I am delighted that the council is starting the trial and hopeful that the trial will be successful and we can keep it going," she said. "We have been facing some challenges with weeds in the Yass area and have held community meetings on it.

"To tackle the problem, we need to see what weeds we have in each region and what is coming from other regions, especially through areas affected by bushfires and drought.

"The council's roles and responsibilities in weed management are extremely important and highly valued by the Department of Primary industries."