Invasion of native plant communities by Chrysanthemoides monilifera (bitou bush and boneseed) was listed as a key threatening process under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 in April 1999. A Threat Abatement Plan (TAP) was prepared under the Act and released by the NSW Environment Minister in 2006.
Download the TAP
Bitou bush and boneseed threat abatement plan (06115TAPtext.pdf; 886 KB)
Appendixes (06115TAPappendices.pdf; 1.3 MB): Please note that the site-specific management plan in the appendixes has been modified - updated site-specific management plan.
What's new?
For the latest information on grants or funding applications or new TAP implementation tools, follow this link.
Implementing the TAP
The following pages are designed to help implement the Bitou Bush and Boneseed TAP across land tenures and the community in NSW.
The Bitou TAP calls for a fundamental change in bitou bush control for the conservation of native plant communities in NSW, through:
1. Collaborative bitou bush control programs across the landscape
The plan identifies priorities for collaborative bitou bush control across both public and private land in NSW. Numerous stakeholders and community groups assist in controlling bitou bush at priority sites. Control is aimed at protecting the entities identified as threatened by bitou bush invasion, which include:
To protect biodiversity, control is focused on:
- 169 priority sites, where management of bitou bush is critical for the survival of the species, populations and ecological communities most at risk
- northern and southern containment zones, which have been established to help halt the spread of bitou bush and reduce future impacts to native species.
The TAP also identifies 24 native animal species that are potentially threatened by bitou bush.
To ensure its objectives are achieved, the TAP explains how to plan control using a standard site-specific management plan, following a staged approach.
To ensure that control of bitou bush is effective and results in the conservation of priority species, the TAP outlines the need for best-practice management. Best-practice guidelines aim to maximise the effectiveness of bitou bush control programs, while minimising impacts on non-target species.
3. Monitoring of control programs
The Monitoring Manual for bitou bush control and native plant recovery has been developed as part of the implementation of the Bitou TAP. The manual proposes a multi-tiered approach to monitoring, where different techniques can be used, depending on the species present at the site and the resources and skills of the land manager. Monitoring programs are vital in determining the effectiveness of bitou bush management and the recovery of the native species most at risk.
4. Community education and engagement
The plan sets out a series of measures aimed at:
How to get involved
5. Identification of knowledge gaps
Development of the TAP revealed gaps in our understanding of the impacts of bitou bush on biodiversity. Research is needed to fill these knowledge gaps.
