Spanish moss

Recommendations

Individuals

Remove all reachable festoons in your garden and put them into the green bin.

Control all festoons in garden trees by other means, e.g. spraying when safe effective methods have been established.

Do not give Spanish moss to friends, neighbours, passers-by and the local community.

Join campaigns to alert the local community and authorities to the threat posed by Spanish moss to bushland and gardens.

Authorities

Control authorities, e.g. state government, local councils, local land services and National Parks and Wildlife Service to urgently remove and control Spanish moss.

Educate the community about the threat posed by Spanish moss to bushland.

The Threatened Species Scientific Committee needs to add Spanish moss as a specific threat to the Critically Endangered Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest.

Regulatory

Spanish moss must be added to:

• the next iteration of the Greater Sydney Regional Strategic Weed Management Plan and all other relevant regional strategic weed management plans
• these plans at a classification level that enables its eradication and containment, prohibition of sale and distribution, e.g. as a regional priority weed

Research

Immediate research is needed into:

• why Spanish moss flourishes on Turpentine, Brush Box and other rainforest species but not on most eucalypts
• the ecological consequences of infestation on individual trees and native plant communities
• the rate of growth and variation of growth with weather
• safe effective control options in Australian conditions
• fire ecology

Education

Education about the threat posed by Spanish moss to bushland through:

• TAFE NSW and private vocational providers – Spanish moss must be included on weed lists for horticultural, landscape, conservation and ecosystem management courses
• community groups – conservation groups (many are members of the Nature Conservation Council), gardening clubs (many are members of Gardening Clubs of Australia), Landcare, Greening Australia
• professional organisations – Australian Association of Bush Regenerators, The Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia, Ecological Society of Australia, Australian Institute of Horticulture
• gardening media – TV gardening and home improvement programs such as Gardening Australia, radio programs, magazines such as ABC Gardening Australia Magazine, Landscape Architecture Australia, Australian House & Garden
• social media – Facebook groups such as NSW Introduced Plant Identification and Bush Revegetation and Regeneration