Veteran weedbuster retires

One of Northland’s best-known ‘weedbusters’ has hung up his sprayer for the final time, signalling the end of more than 25 years fighting pest plants throughout the region.

Northland Regional Council Biosecurity Officer Ken Massey is well-known for his work, particularly within the agricultural sector where he spent most of his time walking the countryside on a pest plant search-and-destroy missions.

Mr Massey says he’s walked thousands of kilometres over the years, starting with the Nassella Tussock eradication programme in 1984 with the then Whangarei County Council.

“My greatest success is the near eradication of Nassella from Northland. When I started there were more than 30,000 plants over 600 hectares and we’re now down to only a few sightings per year,” he says.

“In the course of the Nassella work I walked all the area that lay within three kilometres of known sites in the North Island so it involved a lot of walking and grubbing out plants by hand.”

Originally introduced to the South Island from Argentina via Australia during the Depression in the 1920s, Nassella Tussock is an invasive pest plant that spread across Cook Strait via bush-burn seed, quickly infesting a number of sites throughout the North Island.

“It’s one of those plants that completely cover pastures very quickly and it’s basically unpalatable for stock,” says Mr Massey. “Each large plant disperses up to 120,000 seeds that are carried by wind or water, so once established it’s particularly hard to control and it renders once-productive land completely useless.”

During the early years of the eradication programme Mr Massey travelled throughout the North Island inspecting infestations and reporting to the Government-funded Nassella Tussock Committee.

As a result of the travel, he spent a lot of time away from home, which was hard on his family, particularly his three young children.

“I could be away up to two weeks at a time but I usually tried to get home for the weekend as much as possible.”

Mr Massey says the vigilant eradication of Nassella has been particularly successful in Northland and he’d like to be around to see it – and some other low distribution plants – wiped out completely.

“Seed is viable in the ground for a long time so the odd plants still make an appearance every year. If those plants are dug up before they seed we’ll eventually eradicate it – and that time’s not too far off.”

In the early years Mr Massey worked part-time on the Nassella project while also carrying out other weed duties – including the distribution of early biological control agents – until the Northland Regional Council was formed in the late 1980s.

Government funding of the Nassella project also ended at this time as the newly formed Regional Council incorporated the eradication of the pest plant into its role.

“The new Council was tasked with putting in place Pest Management Strategies, something I was heavily involved in. It really changed the way pest management was carried out.”

“In terms of planning and management, the shift to the Regional Council completely changed the way things were done. Management became far more intensive – during the County Council days there were only a limited number of plants included on the list and boundary control was limited to gorse and ragwort.”

Staffing changes and greater numbers of pest plants saw Mr Massey involved in even more travel around the region, particularly controlling ragwort, gorse, nodding thistle and Bathurst burr. He has also guided large community-driven programmes to control wild ginger, and other environmental weeds including, in recent years, toxic Lantana.

“The importation of plants has created an increasing workload for biosecurity in terms of trying to slow the spread. The current approach involves looking for more rare plants and documenting and controlling them before they spread any further.”

He says most garden escapees are here forever and Councils rely on public goodwill to control some species.

“The key to the job is to keep landowners informed so they know what to look for and how to control invasive plants.”

Mr Massey says the development of lifestyle blocks has also added a new dimension and made the job harder.

“Land that was once grazed and weed controlled can become a problem with rank infestations of all pest plant species, which is very expensive and time consuming to control for the unaware owner.”

He says it is easier for landowners to plant natives that will shade out most weed problems eventually, with landowner assistance to control unwanted species while they establish.

“All landowners should report to the Regional Council any rare plants that have turned up and spread at an alarming rate, whether on their land or a neighbour’s. All reports are confidential and will be dealt with by the Council before the plants get completely out of hand.”

Born in Waipu in 1942, Mr Massey left school at the age of 16 and worked as a shearer both here and in Australia. He says the farming community has been supportive of the pest plant control work he’s done and he always found it easy to connect with farmers because of his background.

“The farming sector is now more knowledgeable across the region. I’ve spent a lot of time knocking on doors, talking to people and presenting information wherever possible.”

Herbicides are another major change he has seen with both the sprays and the way they are handled and applied becoming much safer and more effective.

“Many herbicides were mixed in a 44 gallon drum – a beer bottle full to a drum – and people would mix it without any form of protective clothing. Things have definitely changed for the better.”

Biological control has also become more widespread during his time. The ragwort flea and gorse spider were two of the most extensively spread and effective biological agents that Mr Massey was involved with.

Mr Massey officially retires today (subs: June 30). As for the future, he intends to spend his days playing more golf, going pig hunting, helping his son on the farm at Waiotira and travelling. He will also keep his interest in shearing alive through judging and organising shearing competitions and will continue to work as a volunteer on the Limestone Island restoration project.