Budgeree Bushland Reserve is at the corner of Whitelaws Track and The Mill Road in Yinnar South. The vegetation in the damp or wet forest section is classified as endangered.
The Reserve is managed by Parks Victoria, and Yinnar, Yinnar South Landcare Group has taken on the management of weeds in the south facing section of the Reserve.
When we started this project in 2007, there was a large infestation of Sycamore Maple which needed to be removed. Since then, our group has held annual "Maple Massacres" to remove the weed trees. Recently we've been able to downgrade this event to a "Maple Mop Up" as most of the large trees have been removed or killed.
In October 2014 we had a grant to have a contractor stem inject remaining large seeding sycamore maples and spray some other woody weeds.
In 2016 HVP plantations killed the trees on their side of Bellbrook Creek which seems to have been successful and has removed another source of seed that was spreading into the Reserve.
In November 2018 we were able to negotiate with a neighbouring landholder to remove some large seeding trees on that property. This will hopefully mean that the annual re-infestation from winged seeds ends.
We'll continue to hand pull smaller seedlings and remove anything larger that we find growing while we enjoy the sight of so many local indigenous plants regrowing in the areas previously dominated by maples.