One Tree Hill - Ferny Creek
Where to begin?
English Ivy is seeding and growing everywhere throughout the Dandenong Ranges - not just in the forest - in your garden, on your property and the nature strip. You can help to make the Dandendong Ranges free of English Ivy by:
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not planting ivy on your property
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locating and removing any ivy where you find it
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educating family and friends about the invasive nature of ivy
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never dumping ivy or garden waste
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replacing ivy with locally indigenous plants
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joining a 'Friends' group and helping to control ivy in
bushland areas.
Raising awareness
Individuals and the community are important partners in achieving reduction and eradication of English Ivy. There are many ways to do this:
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Raise public awareness – tell everyone just how invasive ivy is! Family, friends, school teachers, property owners – every one!
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Garden centres – if you see it for sale in garden centres or plant venues, ask them to remove it from sale.
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Parks – if it is growing in parks or public places, let the park management know. The Ivy Project is happy to contact them.
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Councils and Weed Management authorities – call, email, write. Do everything possible to get them to take action to remove English Ivy.
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Local and State Governments - Apart from the ACT, no other government authority has any idea how invasive English Ivy will become. It is essential that Hedera Helix (English Ivy) is declared as a serious pest plant and listed on all weed registers.
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Media attention will also help to raise awareness and prompt those responsible for weed management to take action. Contact an environmental reporter at your local newspaper and write letters to the editor.
By looking out for and reporting serious ivy infestation, you can help to stop the spread and protect the Dandenong Ranges from this high risk invasive plant.
Snap Send Solve
The Snap Send Solve app is a valuable tool for community members to report problems to the correct authority.
Frequently used to report shopping trolley abandonment, graffiti, broken pavements etc., the app can also be used to report any environmental issues including serious infestations of weeds to your local council.
Download the app from the App Store or Google Play
Environmental volunteering
Councils and Park Management organisations are unable to keep up with the spread, control and removal of invasive weeds, particularly English Ivy. Government funding is restricted and even non-existent in some areas.
One solution to the problem of insufficient funding and insufficient action is for people to join a local environment group. There are two main groups - Friends Groups and Landcare Groups and, with over fifty groups throughout the Dandenong Ranges, these groups are making a huge contribution to eradicating weeds.
Join an existing Friends or Lancare group or start your own. Listed below are links to some existing environmental groups.
CWAD
Community Weed Alliance of the Dandenongs.
Promote your group
Locate and advise
There are many environmental and friends groups that are targeting environmental weeds in the Dandenong Ranges. If your group is actively targeting English Ivy we would love to hear from you put your logo and link on this website.
Please contact The Ivy Project
Has English Ivy invaded your space? Have you noticed any large areas of invasive ivy on public land?
We would like to hear from you.
Please send photos and information to The Ivy Project