A crew from Port Macquarie has been working on Lord Howe Island to restore the landscape and pave the way for the return of the rare Lord Howe Island stick insect.
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The four person crew from the bush regeneration company Wild Things Native Gardens (WTNG) has been particularly focused on eradicating the weeds ground asparagus and bridal creeper.
Invasive weeds are identified as one of the most serious threats to Lord Howe Island's biodiversity and world heritage values.
The Lord Howe Island Board has implemented an ambitious program to eradicate at least 25 priority invasive weeds, including ground asparagus and bridal creeper.
"These weeds significantly change the ecology of the island, particularly for the phasmids (Lord Howe Island stick insect) which have been under threat from extinction for a long time now," WTNG Owner Kelly Benson said.
The Lord Howe Island stick Insect is possibly world's rarest insect.
The giant flightless stick insect, over 12 cm in length, was once prolific on Lord Howe Island until black rats were introduced on the island in 1918.
By 1960 they were officially proclaimed extinct.
The phasmids were rediscovered in 2001 on Ball's Pyramid, a volcanic outcrop 23 km off the coast of Lord Howe Island and now Melbourne Zoo is responsible for a captive breeding of this species.
Ms Benson said there are plans to rerelease the Lord Howe Island stick insect back on the Island.
"Before the phasmids come back we need to have the local bushland habitat restored back to what it was when the phasmids were there," she said.
The weed eradication project coincides with a rat eradication project which has divided the community.
Ms Benson is confident the Lord Howe Island stick insect can return and flourish on the Island.
"The island is quite contained so you can hopefully manage it," Ms Benson said.
Ms Benson said weed eradication is quite strenuous.
"Walking up and down those mountains is pretty hard, you can't afford to miss anything," she said.
"Usually we hike into a site which can be anywhere on the island , sometimes it is a short hike, sometimes it a long hike.
"The island is divided into blocks and we walk up and down string lines treating any weeds we come across.
"All of the data gets logged and goes into a GIS mapping software."