Weeds swapped for native plants at Napier Sound Shell for Conservation Week

Alan Lee, biodiversity ranger for DoC, checks out a weed bought in by Kristine Volk of Napier at a Conservation Week event at the Sound Shell on Saturday. Photo / Warren Buckland

Conservation-minded Napier people turned out at the Sound Shell on Saturday to fight the ‘war on weeds’ by swapping a weed for a native plant.

Two hundred native plants were given away when pest weeds were brought in to biosecurity specialists working at the event.

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Department of Conservation, supported by Weedbusters, encouraged people to take action for nature.

Napier biodiversity ranger Abhijeetkumar Manikantan checks out a weed bought in by Andrea Bloxham. Photo/ Warren Buckland

The weediest places are often those closest to towns as over 70 per cent of invasive weeds were originally garden plants.

The Conservation Week event was to highlight how weed species damage our ecosystems and species - that includes endangering rare and threatened birds.

There were 200 native plants to give away at the Conservation Week event at the Sound Shell. Photo / Warren Buckland