[ABC News 8 Aug 2013] — A group of concerned Byron residents want to stop aerial spraying of herbicides by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Tyagarah Nature Reserve. The Byron Shire Chemical Free Land Care group along with concerned residents stopped the spraying operation earlier this week by entering the dunes. The National Parks and Wildlife Service wanted to spray the site to remove the weed, bitou bush. Concerned resident, Iris Ray Nunn, said chemicals harm the environment and pose a threat to people who use the Nature Reserve. "The possible long term effects on the butterflys, the bees, the people who come there and the children who are playing in the sand," she said. "It stays in the ground for hundreds of days and that's quite alarming." Ms Nunn said people walk through the bush not realising it has just been sprayed with chemicals. "They sprayed the Cape and we watched the National Parks and Wildlife do that with a helicopter," she said. "It happened within half an hour period and then the Lighthouse is opened up again and really if you walked through there that morning you would be none the wiser that that had actually just happened." ${imageDescription} Comment