What is Roadside Vegetation?
Roadside vegetation refers to the plants, trees, grasses, and shrubs growing along the edges of roads, highways, and streets.
It can include:
- Native vegetation – plants that occur naturally in the area
- Planted vegetation – species intentionally planted for landscaping, erosion control, or beautification
- Regrowth – vegetation that has naturally re-established over time
Roadside vegetation plays a significant role in our environment and provides a variety of ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity, connecting native habitats, preventing soil erosion, filtering pollutants from road runoff, protecting nearby vegetation, and reducing weed growth by maintaining native plant cover.
However, roadside vegetation continues to be under threat from poor management practices, including weed infestation, grazing, illegal firewood collection, road maintenance, stockpiling, dumped rubbish and vegetation removal.
What is Council doing to enhance roadside native vegetation?
Wagga Wagga City Council developed the Wagga Wagga Roadside Vegetation Management Plan with funding from Local Government NSW and the NSW Environmental Trust, in partnership with Lockhart Shire Council. The aim of this plan is to protect and enhance these vital areas of vegetation into the future.
Council has also implemented various projects and programs including:
- Installing various weed hygiene station around the Wagga Wagga LGA
- Installing red and green guidepost program
- Conducting regular inspections on rural properties, providing feedback and advice on best methods of weed management
Find out more about the above programs via the links below:
What can you do to protect roadside vegetation?
There are ways in which the community can contribute to the protection of roadside vegetation, including:
- Avoid stopping your car within red guide post areas to prevent the spread weeds
- Appreciate native vegetation for its natural state by not mowing, clearing or ‘tidying up’ roadside reserves
- Monitor the health of roadside vegetation and report any damage including illegal clearing, firewood collection and waste dumping
- Buy firewood from a reliable source, never take firewood from roadsides or bushland