Montague Island Seabird Habitat Restoration program
By Stuart Cohen, DEC

Following lengthy research by Charles Sturt University (CSU) the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will soon begin a six year program aimed at restoring seabird habitat on Montague Island Nature Reserve by controlling the noxious grass Kikuyu which poses a major environmental threat to the Island’s 30,000 Seabirds.

Helping hands free a penguin chick from Kikuyu runners. Up to 100 chicks and adults are estimated to become entangled or die from strangulation in the Kikuyu grass runners. Photo: Amy Jorgenson, Charles Sturt University

Kikuyu was introduced to the 80 hectare island off the Far South Coast around the 1900s to stabilise sand which was entering the historic lighthouse keepers quarters. It now covers more than 40 per cent of the island and if left unchecked could cover the island within ten years.

The Kikuyu is now so dense that penguins can not burrow and are forced to nest within the long grass. The Island has a history of lightning strikes and it would only take one in the midst of the nesting season for a major catastrophe. The research has also shown approximately 3% of chicks each year are severely injured or killed by entanglements in the long Kikuyu runners.

The research so far has shown that no single method applied on its own will be successful in controlling Kikuyu to the extent required to stop the Kikuyu impact on seabird habitat.

As a consequence the approach will involve spraying with a diluted herbicide that has little or no impact on native plants, followed by burning of the dead Kikuyu mass, which in some places is waist deep. This is then followed by respraying of Kikuyu regrowth and over the next six years we will replant over around 250,000 trees and shrubs that will create shade preventing the return of Kikuyu.

Every possible precaution will be taken to ensure that introduced fire remains controlled and there is no harm to the island’s seabirds.

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