Cubs and Scouts purge sea spurge

The Phillip Island Cubs and Scouts held a special Clean Up Australia Day event this month.

The group removed 18 bags of sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias) from the Cowes foreshore near McKenzie Road beach carpark south along the beach.

“We were guided by Heather Liney from Coastcare Cowes as to the location to focus on, to help them in their current campaign to remove this highly invasive weed from our local sand dunes,” said Robyn Mylius from the Scouts group.

“This was a highly successful effort, followed by games on the sand afterwards.”

The group used to clean up litter from the bushland around the Scout Hall in Blue Gum Reserve, but changed to an ongoing project of removing sea spurge after past President Pete Cleary, who is a Nature Parks ranger, made them aware of how important it is to remove this weed.

Sea spurgh invades coastal areas and competes with native vegetation, also colonising or taking over open sand dunes where birds nest.

“This plant is not native to Australia and spreads rapidly through the dunes, and has a sap which can irritate skin, so we always wear gloves when removing it,” Robyn explained.

“Clean Up Australia Day is an important event in our youth program, we run these events in terms 1 and 4.

“It also helps us work towards badgework like Landcare, the World Scout Environment Award, as well as Champions for Nature, all part of the focus on a healthy environment and our commitment to “think global, act local” as responsible world citizens.

“As members of Scouts Australia we are also committed to working on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in our projects and programs.”