Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers acknowledges bluegum seedling spread

KIPT this week issued a statement that its operations team is assisting landowners to remove blue gum seedlings, activated by the bushfires of last summer.

The Islander first reported landowners concerns about the spread of plantation blue gum seedlings in November.

See: Suspected plantation blue gum tree saplings spread after Kangaroo Island wildfire

KIPT general manager Keith Lamb at that time said it had not yet been determined if these were plantation blue gums. And if they were, then the issue needed to be addressed as part of the bushfire clean up as fire caused the spread.

Meanwhile, volunteers led by botanists, including local Michelle Haby, surveying the bushfire-ravaged western end of KI for rare and threatened plant species have also raised the alarm about the blue gum seedlings.

Ms Haby is concerned about the impact of blue gum plantation seedlings on the native flora.

"Since the fires, Tasmanian blue gum has been spreading from plantations into adjacent roadsides, private conservation reserves and parks in huge numbers, threatening to out-compete these rare and threatened plants," Ms Haby said.

"In the year since the fire, seedlings have grown to around 0.5m high, however in moister areas some have grown up to 2m in height. Average densities of 5000 seedlings per hectare are being observed."

KIPT is now assisting landowners to remove blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) seedlings it say were activated by the fires.

"While blue gum, like the koalas that like to feed in them, are a native Australian species, neither is endemic to Kangaroo Island," Mr Lamb said.

"It is unusual to see blue gums setting seed from plantations because the typical harvest age is around 10 years, before the trees are fully mature.

"The average age of the Kangaroo Island blue gums is about 14 years, well past the usual harvest age, due to the delays in approvals for the Smith Bay seaport.

KIPT says wildfire provides the perfect conditions for germination of blue gum seedling, so it's not surprising the combination of older trees and high intensity wildfires on KI led to germination of trees.

"The dispersal of the seed bank is patchy; highly concentrated in some areas and not so much in others," Mr Lamb said.

"We understand weeds are an emerging problem across the island following the fires and recent rains.

See: Rising from the ashes - KI's rare and endemic flora

Although blue gum is not a declared weed, KIPT staff are assisting with control efforts by removing seedlings on sensitive areas such as neighbours' properties: fencelines bordering national parks and private landholders with heritage native vegetation."

KIPT says its has also has provided a letter of support for KI Conservation Landholders Association, of which it is a member, to access federal bushfire recovery funding for weed monitoring and removal.

The statement says the Nature Conservancy of SA and other groups have mobilised volunteers to help monitor and remove weeds, including from fodder which was brought to feed animals after pasture was destroyed in the fires.

Biosecurity SA has convened landholders and others stakeholders to participate in a weeds advisory group as part of a wider biosecurity effort after the fires, and KIPT will be represented on that group, the company says.