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Introduction Connection to Land Climate & Landscape
Sea Management Land Management Feral Animal Management

Land Management

Caring for Country Unit Key Issues Fire Management
Weed Management

Weed Management

Top End Invaders Management

Rangers are involved in a variety of weed control programs

Management

The Caring for Country Unit and Aboriginal people are addressing the weed issue on their lands.

The emphasis for the management program is strategically based, focusing on the prevention of weed spread and building the capacity of Aboriginal landowners to deal with weed incursions before they become a major problem.

Land management practices developed over millennia generally maintained a relatively stable distribution of plants and animals - at least when compared to the rapid changes in plant and animal distributions that have occurred over the past 200 years. However, traditional land management skills and ecological knowledge alone do not adequately address new and emerging environmental problems associated with weeds.

Case studies have shown that carefully planned ongoing management of weeds is more likely to succeed than short-term, intensive control. Tackling weeds in the sparsely populated Aboriginal lands of the Top End necessitates a strategic approach. The over-arching goal of the Northern Land Council's Caring for Country Unit is to help Aboriginal communities develop formal land management programs, to deal with land management issues such as weeds.

The main thrusts in weed management are:

	Prevention
	Identifying plant communities prone to invasion
	Surveillance and early intervention
	Decreasing susceptibility to invasion
	Effective management of existing weeds
	Research

The success of the mimosa program in Kakadu National Park, with a strong focus on surveillance and early intervention, has set a precedent for the management of weeds. With the assistance of the Caring for Country Unit, Aboriginal community agencies are setting up community ranger or land management programs to deal with weed invasions.