History of Forest Health Surveillance in New Zealand

1
History of Forest Health Surveillance in New
Zealand

• Lindsay Bulman
• Forest Biosecurity and Protection
• 7 March 2008

2
Forest Health Surveillance early days

• Miller and Cunningham acted as entomologist and
  pathologist, respectively, in the 1920s for the
  newly formed Forest Service. They were followed
  by Clark and Birch.
• In 1938, Joe Rawlings was appointed as forest
  ecologist, based in Wellington.

3
Forest Health Surveillance early days

• In 1947 Rawlings was told he was transferring
  from Wellington to Rotorua to form the Forest
  Health Group
• The Sirex outbreak in the late 1940s and a looper
  caterpillar outbreak in Canterbury in 1951 led
  Rawlings to push for the establishment of the
  National Forest Biology Survey

4
Forest Health Surveillance first developments

• In 1953, the Government engaged de Gryse to
  recommend practices to safeguard the countrys
  exotic forests from the threat of pests and
  diseases
• The report was presented in 1955 and on 6
  February 1956 dedicated forest surveillance
  started
• There were 10 field staff in the Forest Biology
  Survey, administered at FRI
• Early emphasis was on monitoring insect
  populations

5
Forest Health Surveillance first developments

• In 1964, Dothistroma needle blight was confirmed
  to be present in New Zealand
• It was first discovered in 1962, but symptoms
  were masked by a Cyclaneusma outbreak

• New Zealand fared better than other countries
  Dothistroma had been present in Zimbabwe as early
  as 1943, but wasnt confirmed until 1962 and in
  Chile it was confirmed in 1965 from material
  collected in 1962 at a location where disease was
  reported in the late 1950s

6
Forest Health Surveillance further developments

• By 1964 a very large amount of data on
  lepidopterous populations had been collected and
  a review was in order
• However, the Dothistroma situation delayed
  development of the surveillance system

• It wasnt until the late 1960s that the emphasis
  of surveillance shifted
• Continuous population sampling stopped and there
  was a shift towards detecting and investigating
  forest health problems in general, with emphasis
  on early detection and assessing damage

7
Developments in the 1970s and 1980s

• In the early 1970s regular port environs surveys
  were started
• Aerial assessment techniques were developed
• Survey staff were heavily involved with research
  experiments (a 1979 review showed about 30 of
  time spent on this activity)

• The 1979 review also recommended that detection
  effort be concentrated in high risk areas and
  that aerial surveillance be used to a greater
  extent

• By 1982 aerial surveillance was routinely carried
  out

8
Developments in the 1980s

• By the mid 1980s forest health surveillance was
  very well established
• Aerial and ground assessment techniques were used
  in combination
• 25 years inspection and collection data were
  entered into the forest health database
• Walk-through post environs surveys were carried
  out, along with regular blitz surveys

• In 1987, the Forest Service ceased to be and
  things changed somewhat

9
Developments in the 1980s and 1990s

• Industry had a considerable input into
  development of the surveillance scheme
• This was encouraged by the fact that industry now
  had to pay for surveillance

• A major series of trials were undertaken in the
  late 1980s where probability of detection from
  various types of surveys was determined

• This work lead to the adoption of combinations of
  aerial, drive-through, and walk-through surveys
  with intensity based on level of risk (The Carter
  Model)

10
Developments in the 1990s

• In 1995, further surveillance efficiency field
  trials were done

• Efficiency of drive-through and walk-through
  surveys in forests and parks was determined

• From that, probability of detection could be
  calculated (Bulman et al. 1999)

11
Recent developments

• Industry made the surveillance scheme contestable
  in 2000, and ultimately two providers were
  invited to perform services for the NZFOA

• The surveillance scheme has gone through a number
  of reviews and the objectives and operations of
  the scheme were closely scrutinised.

• The notation that new pest detection and
  assessment of damage by established pests have
  different survey requirements was recognised
• Long-term forest condition monitoring was
  considered, and research on development started
  in 1999

12
Recent developments

• A review of the surveillance scheme was carried
  out in November 2007
• A grant from SFF to develop a forest health
  monitoring system was secured

• The FBRC funded a research project on optimising
  survey methods and effort for detecting new pests
  and assessing status of current pests