A joint focus on woody weeds along House Creek is making rapid headway in bringing the creekline vegetation back to a natural state.

Parklands rangers are working on behalf of the Wodonga Urban Landcare Network with a handy team of volunteers to rid the creek of invasive weeds through central Wodonga. The crew is hand treating woody weeds including blackberry, willow, cottonwood and box elder maples which have infested the creek bed and banks in recent years.

Their efforts compliment the weed removal work being done by Council downstream, and projects in Gordon Hartsman Park and Ewart Brothers Reserve by the Wodonga Urban Landcare Network upstream. By the end of this year House Creek should be largely free of woody weeds from Wodonga Creek back to Castle Creek Road.

Hand treatment involves cutting each tree at the base and treating the stump with herbicide so that it won’t re-sprout. Some patches along the creek are worse than others, and the ‘going’ is tough some days. In very heavy areas the effort will be assisted by mechanical removal over the next couple of months. Woody debris will be removed or chipped.

Wodonga is fortunate to have these amazing connecting wildlife and recreation corridors through the centre of the city, and residents are encouraged to take an active interest in stewardship of these reserves. Community members can form or join existing park stewardship groups through the Wodonga Urban Landcare Network, or join the Parklands volunteer program to get down and dirty restoring the integrity of the native vegetation on a Friday morning.