Keith Briden has been working for some years killing boneseed on public land around the hillsides of Sumner and Godley Head. In summer he is a hunter and fisherman, but his winter weekends are devoted to killing boneseed. Keith does this work mainly on his own (his sons are now teenagers and can no longer be persuaded to help him). He has diversified and will kill other weeds such as boxthorn, but his main focus is still the boneseed, which was starting to cause major problems on the coastal hills.

Keith has made very noticeable progress and is working towards totally eradicating boneseed from the areas he works in. He is very thorough in his follow up, taking great care to ensure that cleared areas stay clear.

One of the major problems is boneseed growing in inaccessible sites on the cliffs. Keith is working on a variety of innovative ways of safely targeting boneseed plants. Already he has had a lot of success with this, and his methods are being adopted by others in New Zealand and overseas.

Keith keeps in touch with the organisations that look after the land he works on (mainly DOC and the City Council). Boneseed is a pest plant in the regional Pest Management Strategy, so ECan are kept in the loop and the pest plants officers are amazed at the progress he has made removing boneseed from huge areas of coastal land. In the 2006 Weedbusters Awards, Keith received a special award from ECan (a box of Vigilant gel which he has used to good effect in his battle against boneseed). This has helped him to continue his work.

Nominated by: Hugh Gourlay, Canterbury Branch of New Zealand Biosecurity Institute