Fears funding could be cut for rubber vine research

A group of four people has succeeded in wiping out 99.9 per cent of a weed outbreak in the WA’s Kimberley region. They call themselves “team rubber vine”, but they are concerned funding could be diverted to “sexier” environmental causes and their good work could be undone. Project coordinator John Szymanski said it had taken several years of hard physical labour to get to this point. “The rubber vine is almost gone from the Fitzroy Valley, and we are so far ahead of it, that eradication actually is achievable,” he said.