Page 3741 - Week 12 - Thursday, 25 November 2021
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services has sufficient resources to perform high-quality urban maintenance that meets the goals for the biodiversity and cooling of our city, irrespective of the oncoming climate variability, and that the people doing those jobs have meaningful, secure employment with full access to leave and other entitlements.
This year, we need far more mowing, but in future years drought and water stress are far more likely. Projections show that future spring and winter rainfall will likely decrease, even as thunderstorms increase, along with the risk of summer fires. The rise in hot days and heatwaves will also be exacerbated in some parts of the city by the urban island heat effect.
This means we need a strong and skilled workforce that can take care of our public lands in a way that is responsive to the changing climate. We need landscapers and urban planners that can think about how to re-landscape public areas for climate resilience. We need horticulturists and skilled labour to undertake the planting, mowing, weeding and revegetation that will both reduce the urban heat island effect and enhance biodiversity, attract pollinators and increase amenity.
This might mean re-imagining some of the areas currently covered in fast-growing exotic grasses and weeds, with other local species, particularly where road safety is currently a concern. For example, I was buoyed to see the native species Viola hederacea, or the native violet, in the TCCS list of ground covers that are also suitable for bushfire-prone areas. This lovely and hardy little plant is a wonderful ground cover and a lawn substitute. Other native ground covers, like the creeping bulbulia, produce food for fruit-eating birds.
Rather than simply demanding more mowing every time a La Nina comes round, we may be able to have our cake and eat it too, if, with a little forethought, we reconsider vegetating areas with wildlife habitat by keeping in mind road safety and climate resilience.
Of course, grass will continue to be a staple of the Canberra landscape in parks, sportsgrounds, playgrounds and ovals. One important aspect of maintaining these areas is trying to contain the spread of weeds and invasive species. I was pleased to hear that city services redesigned a training package for mower operators to include education about directional mowing. This is a practice where you go from non-weed-infested areas to infested areas to limit weed spread. This also defines priority weed species that operators should look out for in urban open spaces. The training includes the need to identify and report new weed sites and outbreaks that mowers can assist with containing.
I look forward to hearing how the investigations into equipping mower operators with small handheld battery-operated blowers are going. This initiative will assist mower cleaning after mowing, when they have gone through an identified weed location, to limit the cross-contamination into other areas, and would be a welcome addition to improving mowing hygiene.
I also call for better mapping of native grasses, or no-mow areas, alongside the education and training about grassland biodiversity and management, to be incorporated into ongoing training and operational practices inside TCCS.
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