This is the first of a four-part article by BEC member GEOFF DAWE. Geoff is the regenerator consultant for the Cumbebin Wetland in Byron Bay, where he has introduced a chemical-free weed management program which recognises that weeds have a part to play in regeneration.

 Part 1: Philosophy

Chemical free weed control at Cumbebin Wetland, on the western edge of Byron Bay, is based on the knowledge that soil organic matter levels (OMLs) in western land use patterns are in decline.

The method aims to aid in the retention, or even increase of OMLs and therefore is not separate from other rural land use activities including agriculture.

Weed species currently dominate because soils are under threat. Nature is well aware, even if people are not, that what grows and lives upon the soil is secondary to the need to retain soil.  Whilst our species through ignorance, collapses soil health, weed species rush in to provide the biomass that provides the organic matter that healthy soil requires. 

Many native species are no nonger able to optimally provide organic matter for organic matter-starved soils, and they have been replaced by exotic species better able to return biomass to soil if for no other reason than they have volunteered for their position in place of natives.

Weeds also shade and hold soil, soften heavy rains, and feed many animals--all who manure--and some of whom are native.  Weeds therefore have a part to play in land regeneration.

Social Perception of Weeds

Weeds themselves, in common with all land degradation, are created by an imbalance in social perception that can only be effectively cured from a rebalancing at this level. 

All parts of nature have both positive and negative effects, and the current debate on Camphor Laurel shows quite clearly that the balance is now shifting in social perception to this, rather than what could be called an American Culture view that things can be clearly differentiated into the good and the bad; things that deserve existence, and things that do not. 

The chemical free regeneration technique at Cumbebin therefore incorporates a continual search for the usefulness of the various weed species, particularly as aids to the growth of native plants.

Weed Rampancy

Many weeds are despised because of their rapid growth.  It is precisely this characteristic that makes them important inregeneration.  Western culture is experiencing reducing OMLs and if focus begins at the soil in overcoming land degradation, when it is obvious that it is the rampancy of plant and animal life upon any area of soil that is the means by which soil OMLs most efficiently rise.  Many of our rampant plants, and therefore provisioners of higher OMLs, are weeds.

Non-chemical Use

The issue of the non use of chemicals does not concern itself primarily with the potential toxicity of chemicals, although there islittle doubt that this occurs; no pesticide has been proven safe and many have been withdrawn from sale when proven unsafe.

The primary issue is technological dependence which brings about the consumption of products thought to be so necessary that there is denial of side effects, and the mind ceases the search for alternatives.

A further concern of chemical use is that it is part of a technological armoury including artificial fertilisers and genetic engineering that is able to support plant and animal growth artificially without the need (in the short term) to particularly notice soil health.  Soil OMLs drop because production is able to occur without the necessity to completely return organic matter.

Since weeds are symptoms of land degradation, their proliferation is linked to ignoring land health by using technological inputs.

The chemical use which many bush regenerators see as part of the solution, can be seen to be part of the problem. Unless there is an attempt to highlight the need for experimentation with non-chemical control of weeds, and the finding of information associated with that, the ongoing soil and water degrading effects of land clearing and chemical use will have simply jumped from agriculture to bush regeneration.

Read Part Two of Geoff's article