Tools for Foresters launches a collaborative new website

Vive la résistance – achieving long-term success in managing wilding conifer invasions

Wilding conifers are an economic and environmental disaster that already affect 1.5 million hectares of New Zealand. A further 7.5 million hectares of productive or iconic conservation land are threatened by invasion in the next 30 years. In response, the government has established a National Wilding Conifer Control Programme to deal with the problem. The science team will develop effective strategies to create long-term resistance to conifer re-invasion on treated land. The Scion programme will transform current conifer wilding management practices by breaking an otherwise inevitable cycle of treatment, re-invasion and re-treatment. Scion will also work with Māori around management of wilding conifer re-invasions, to help restore Māoritanga to affected land. Existing wilding conifer populations are currently being treated, but control efforts do not consider that cleared land is more likely to be re-invaded due to incomplete initial control, soil legacy effects, seed banks and other causes. Re-invasion processes are significantly different from those of initial invasion and there is a critical international knowledge gap on how various factors interact to drive this. Addressing this knowledge gap will have significant benefits for New Zealand with a projected $6.3 billion of benefits by 2050 from the current $100 million investment in wilding control. Scion estimates there will be substantial benefits of around $750 million (benefit-to-cost ratio is around 54:1) by reducing wilding conifer treatment costs and avoiding multiple re-treatments by preventing or reducing re-invasion cycles. This highly collaborative research project is underway and researchers from Scion, Lincoln University, University of Canterbury, Manaaki Whenua, Australian National University and the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (USA) will work together to support the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme.

For more information, contact thomas.paul@scionresearch.com

Researchers and those deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the forest will now be able to collaborate more closely using the new Tools for Foresters website as a central hub, which launched in March 2022. The new website is designed to help develop UAV technology, as well as provide a digital platform for UAVrelated research, knowledge and resources for industry users. Scion autonomous systems scientist Robin Hartley says the Tools for Foresters group is comprised of UAV enthusiasts who have a range of research, technical skills and forestry knowledge. “We’re happy to devote our expertise, time and energy to developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for New Zealand forestry practices. We also help with troubleshooting, informing best practice and there’s an online forum for discussion. “The website will be especially useful for young foresters to get up to speed with technology and to gain confidence in its use,” he explains. Port Blakely Essential Oils project director Mitch Cooke says, “It’s not in our job description as foresters to do trial and error with new technologies – we just don’t really have the time. “There’s a lot of groundwork to get where you want to be and there has never been a good way to share this with the rest of industry until we started Tools for Foresters.” The Tools for Foresters group is steered by a committee of 10 members from across forestry, research, firefighting and government. Group membership is open to anybody who has an interest in the forest industry. Hartley encourages people to get involved to help the industry progress the use of UAVs, with an objective for the group to eventually expand and include other new technologies. Scion thanks the following organisations for supporting Tools for Foresters: Port Blakely Forest Management, Timberlands, Pan Pac, Te Uru Rākau Forest Products, FPS Geospatial, Envico Technologies and City Forests.

For more information, visit www.toolsforforesters.co.nz