The Greens welcome the news that the Foxglove has finally become a declared pest in Lutruwita / Tasmania. This decision is a long awaited and monumental step toward controlling this fast-spreading weed.
Foxglove has been encroaching upon high conservation value areas including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, our National Parks as well as important agriculture regions for too long. Now its been declared as a pest, we look forward to seeing a concentrated eradication effort take place.
The declaration, and defining focused control zones, will assist land managers dealing with eradication as a priority and help protect our greatest ecosystems and biodiversity in conservation areas. We hope the Liberals will now ensure there is adequate funding for the weed management plan once it is approved and rolled out.
The Greens have been proud to stand behind the community, who’ve been pushing for this for a number of years. We extend our appreciation for the mountain of advocacy and education work undertaken by those in the community — particularly James Godfrey, Tony Wilson and Dr Liz Sharpley.
Now that the Liberals are taking action on invasive species, their next job should be to release their 2024-2029 Cat Management Plan. Despite being a year into this plan, Tasmanians haven’t yet been able to see the draft or make comment on it.
The Greens have consistently advocated for this declaration, including via a parliamentary petition and questions in Parliament.
