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Pest Plant Programme

Pest plants or weeds are a threat to our native plants and animals. We have several programmes aimed at keeping these problem plants in check.

What are Lower Hutt’s Weeds?

Although a weed is just a plant in the wrong place, what we call weeds are typically rapidly growing, invasive species that tend to overtake and exclude the desired plants. In our bush reserves, the only desired plants are local indigenous species. Greater Wellington Regional Council does extensive prioritisation about what weeds need to be controlled and Hutt City Council follows their guidance.

Greater Wellington’s Regional Pest Management Plan

Our city and its reserves have their own weeds that aren’t necessarily a priority for the whole region. For at least the last 20 years Lower Hutt has been waging war on a particularly nasty invader: Old Man’s Beard or Clematis vitalba. This work has been very effective in our city, and there are some people who still remember the “massive curtains” that used to smother our native bush.

Pest Plant Programme weed list

The Pest Plant Programme has expanded and today we have five species on the list of plants that we control.

If you have any of these weeds on your property, we can send someone to deal with them. It will then go onto our monitoring program and we will return annually to ensure the infestation has not returned. After five years, if it is still clear, we can schedule one last visit in another five years to be absolutely certain the control has worked.

The five weeds we control at no cost to you are:

Old Man’s Beard
Cathedral Bells
Banana Passionfruit
Climbing Asparagus
Pampas

If you have any of these pests on your property, contact us and we will control it at no cost.

Boundary Weed Control

Hutt City Council aims to control weeds in our bush reserves. We focus on controlling the most damaging species. We provide a service to landowners whose boundaries are shared with our reserves. If weeds are encroaching from bush reserves, or have become a fire hazard, we will clear the boundary of weeds. If the areas are large enough we will replant appropriately-sized, ecosourced native species.

To report a boundary weed problem please contact us.