OMB Free News

Exciting news! We're creating our first Old Man's Beard (OMB) Free Zone.

This ties together sites where we've controlled OMB along with road reserve and private land.

We're hoping to have controlled OMB across this zone by the end of autumn*

It covers from the waterfront to the basin reserve, up Tasman St, Hutchison Road, through Wellington High School, most of Pukeahu/Mt Cook, Prince of Wales Park, Nairn St Park, Gum Gully ki Tūranga Rere, Central Park, Tanera Park, Willis St and Terrace Tunnel south side.

The map shows Zone 1 with coloured dots showing the status of the known OMB patches. Yellow and Green diamonds indicate patches that have been controlled.

Purple and Red circles indicate patches that need checking and controlling.

You can see the map at map.ombfree.nz . We'd love to hear of new OMB sites we haven't found yet, especially in Zone 1. Ideally upload photos to iNaturalist. See ombfree.nz/mapping for details.

* with the caveat that steep road reserve sites cannot be controlled, e.g. Rodger's Corner on Brooklyn Road.

Our focus for 2023-2024 is to rid the Highbury suburb of OMB, from the Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne fenceline down to Norway Street’s Backyard Bush Project.

Zealandia is the “jewel in the crown” of Wellington’s natural capital. Zealandia’s General Manager of Conservation and Restoration, Jo Ledington says the return of nature to Wellington’s backyards has been a massive cross-organisation and community effort over many years and the work being undertaken by OMB Free Wellington is yet another amazing example of how we can all play a part in making Wellington a haven for biodiversity.

Supporting the Zealandia ‘halo’, the Backyard Bush project includes 20 properties at Norway and Plunket Streets. Motivated by steep and largely inaccessible back yards, these neighbours collectively hired a professional restoration company to clear weeds and plant native bush. This work was conducted over a 2½ year period targeting more than 40 species of invasive plants and removal of non-native trees, resulting in a landscape that is totally transformed. This has benefitted native wildlife, increased neighbourliness, and greatly reduced ongoing maintenance. Jane Martin, Backyard Bush Founder, says “Clearing old man's beard from Highbury will reduce the chances of reinvasion of our most noxious weed species. This will reinforce the ‘halo’, protect the considerable work we’ve all put into our sections, and bring us closer together as neighbours in this kaupapa.“

Clearing Highbury of Old Man’s Beard won’t be an easy task, and requires the support of the community. As well as clearing the large infestations along the Zealandia fenceline, the group will be working with residents to clear Old Man’s Beard from their properties. The seed bank for Old Man’s Beard lasts for about 10 years, so repeat visits will be necessary for years to come. Nigel Charman of Old Man’s Beard Free Wellington is optimistic about the work ahead “luckily we’ll be building on the systems used by groups such as STAMP in Auckland to work with the community to tackle these noxious environmental weeds”.

Listen to our chat with Jesse Mulligan on Radio NZ about this initiative.