Market Access and Risk Management - KPIs
IO5 – Protect and enhance market access and improve risk management in the forest industry including forest health and preparedness for biosecurity incursions, fire and climate change
Impact KPI-9:
Ensure New Zealand forests are resilient to current and
future natural threats
By
2019, new tools and technologies will have been developed to quantify
and mitigate impacts from the increasing risk to New Zealand’s forests
from pests, fire and wind, and climate change, and will have been
adopted by forest industries, land owners, and central and regional
government.
Leading indicator | Progress |
By 2016, Ministry for Primary Industries will have
adopted a new tool or method developed by Scion and Scion’s research
partners to enable early detection and/or eradication of a pest to New
Zealand’s forests. | The forest
biosecurity surveillance system was re-designed to expand coverage from
plantation forests to all areas where forest pests could first
establish. Prototype pest establishment and surveillance optimisation
models were developed. In 2015-16 these will be tested with the aim of
full operational deployment in 2016-17. |
By
2016, Scion will have identified radiata pine germplasm with improved
resistance to at least one foliar disease. | Laboratory-based
testing of Pinus radiata germplasm from the RPBC’s
Elite Clone lines has identified lines that are either more susceptible
or more resistant to Phytophthora pluvialis, the
causal agent of red needle cast. This finding augers well for the
eventual deployment of resistant lines on disease prone sites. |
By 2016,
rural fire stakeholders through the Rural Fire Research Advisory
Committee will have adopted new fire behaviour models or adopted
enhanced data collection systems that lead to both enhanced fire fighter
safety and intelligence for fire fighting decision making. | Wilding conifer burning trials have been
prepared for ignition this coming spring. The trials will provide data
to improve the conifer burn models utilised in the Fire Behaviour
Calculator and Prometheus Wildland Fire Growth Model. Prometheus was
used operationally at several wildfires during the past summer to assist
fire management decision making (e.g. fire suppression resource
allocation, community evacuations). A prototype UAV fire hot-spotting
system for locating areas burning, not visible to the naked eye, was
developed and is being tested. |
By
2017, there will be at least two examples of policy makers or forest
growers using Scion’s models and tools to quantify and mitigate the
impact of climate change or severe weather. | One
forest manager is already using Scion’s models to assess the risk of
wind damage when scheduling thinning operations. The impacts of future
climate change on the risk of wind damage were assessed and
recommendations made on how forest growers need to modify their
silvicultural regimes to mitigate this risk. |
By
2018, options to reduce the impact of Phytophthora
on radiata pine, kauri and one horticultural species have
been identified. | Laboratory studies
showed that both phosphite and copper oxide are promising chemicals to
control red needle cast on Pinus radiata. Preliminary studies looking at chemotaxis (chemical stimuli that could attract or repel Phytophthora zoospores) also showed good promise as another method to reduce impact of Phytophthora in both natural ecosystems and plantations. |
Ongoing
- the National Forest Herbarium and the Forest Health Collections and
Databases remain viable and provide valuable information on the national
forestry position for New Zealand. | Herbarium
now offers high resolution images of specimens online. Gaps in the
collection of New Zealand cultivated woody species were identified and
are being addressed with the help of external partners. During the year,
>700 specimens were added and >300 requests for
identification or botanical information were addressed. |