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NZ Wilding Conifer Management Group (WCMG)

Annual Workshop and Field Trip

Five Stags, Hanmer Springs, Canterbury.

Wed 25th - Thu 26th Oct. 2017

 

 

AGENDA

Day 1. Workshop. Wed 25th October
 9.00 Arrival and coffee
 9.15 Welcome
 9.20 Updates from Wilding Trusts and regional representatives (10-15min)
          (Speakers will be confirmed in the coming weeks)

          - North Island Central
          - Marlborough Sounds Trust and Abel Tasman
          - Southern Marlborough Trust
          - Canterbury
          - Mackenzie Trust
          - WELRA
          - Central Otago Trust
          - WCC
          - Mid Dome Trust

 12.00 Lunch
 13.00 Update on the Wilding Conifer National Strategy and Programme

                    - Overview (MPI)
                    - Mapping and progress reporting (LINZ)
                    - Communications (e.g. website; MPI)
                    - Good Practice Process (MPI)
 14.00 ‘Winning against Wildings’ research programme (MBIE)

                    - Overview (Landcare)
                    - Research progress (control, detection)

 15.00 ‘Wilding control and beyond’ research project (Sustainable Farming Fund)

                    - Research outline
                    - Next steps

 15.30 Other matters

 16.00 Closing

 16.15 – 5.15 pm AGM WCMG

Day 2. Field trip. Thu 26th October

Start 8.30     am

Proposed site visits and activities:

·       Jolie’s and Jacks Pass (Core study sites for research)
·       Clarence and Archeron area
·       Tarndale (Molesworth Station)
·       Training demonstration for “Using the wand against wildings”

Return to Hanmer by 5.00 pm

Registration

This is a free event for all stakeholders and interested parties involved in aspects of Wilding Conifer Management in NZ. The event includes catering for the workshop and lunch for the field trip.

If you plan to attend, please email either
Annette (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or
Thomas (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
by 30th September to register your attendance. Please also advise of any dietary requirements.

An updated agenda will be emailed to all participants by mid-October.

Accommodation
Please arrange your own accommodation. For example, accommodation can be booked at Hot Springs Motor Lodge (e.g., studio room for NZ$145).

Transport:

To Hanmer: Participants to arrange their own transport to Hanmer, but we will try to facilitate some shared transport to Hanmer from Christchurch and back.

Field trip: We are planning to co-ordinate shared transport for the field trip as in previous years. Please indicate if you will attend the field trip and if you are have transport (4WD) and seats available.

Details

26 May 2016

 

$16m new funding to tackle wilding conifers

Budget 2016 provides $16 million of new operating funding over four years to tackle wilding conifers, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry say.

“These invasive trees are a major threat to our ecosystems, land and farms. They spread fast and are very hard to eradicate once established,” Mr Guy says.

“Wilding conifers compete with native flora and fauna for sunlight and water, and can severely alter natural landscapes. This funding will help protect productive land, the tourism and forestry sectors, and sensitive water catchments from the impacts of this tree pest.”

The new funding will be used to control wilding conifers in the highest priority areas. These are likely to include Molesworth Station, headwaters of Southern Alps lakes and rivers, the Wakatipu Basin, and the North Island’s central plateau.

It will also support greater collaboration between the Crown, regional councils, community groups, land owners, and foresters.

“Wildings are the most significant weed problem New Zealand faces – and the number one target of the War on Weeds,” Ms Barry says.

“Wilding conifers currently cover more than 1.8 million hectares of land, and are spreading at an estimated rate of 5 per cent a year.”

The new funding provided in Budget 2016 builds on the estimated $11 million spent on the management of wilding conifers each year.

Media contacts: Phil Rennie 021 405 443 (Minister Guy)

                            Alex Fensome 027 277 2313 (Minister Barry)

 

Details

The NZWCMG met this year in Queenstown on the 27th of April to update, inform and talk about all aspects of Wilding conifer management in New Zealand.

The Meeting was well attended with over 60 participants during the meeting day at the Memorial Hall in Queenstown.

Attendees came from as far as Wanganui and Rotorua to the mountainous south, but local participation was, as expected, very high and dominating as Queenstown is a "hot-spot" in terms of managing wilding conifers.

The morning on the 27th was filled with updates and reports from wilding conifer management groups across the country, providing an excellent overview on what is happening in the country and the advances and problems that these passionate groups are made or struggle with. (You can download the individual presentations from here).

After lunch the attendees were updated on new research and policy developments related to wilding conifer management. Research presentations ranged from updates on control techniques, e.g. new Department of Conservation Trials of new additives and mixes (Pete Raal) and herbicide uptake studies by Scion (S. Gous and C. Rolando) to coning and establishment of Douglas-fir in high country environments (T. Paul) and spatially extrapolated expert based risk assessments of wilding conifer spread in New Zealand (K.Lloyd). Duane Peltzer gave an overview of the proposed research programme of Landcare Research, Scion and BioProtection, Lincoln, which, if successful will underpin and improve our way to manage wilding conifer more effectively. The last two slots belonged to MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) to update the audience on their progress on the Wilding Conifer Management Strategy and its implementation (Sherman Smith and Veronica Herrera). You can download the presentations of the afternoon session from here, including past presentations and reports (e.g. on natural successions after wilding control).

The NZWCMG AGM followed after the meeting and minutes will be posted to members in the next weeks.

Ali Timms from the Mid Dome Trust briefs field-day attendees

On the 28th 45 attendees joint the field-trip to Mid Dome. On the way to Mid Dome the group stopped at a number of points to give attendees an appreciation of the landscape and surroundings of Mid Dome, which are often can play a critical factor in the overall management of a wilding conifer infestation in the long term. After an introduction in the history of Mid Dome and the Mid Dome Trust and its management plan at Five Rivers attendees were shuttled up into the Mid Dome control area by helicopter (courtesy of Nokomai Helicopters and Boffa Miskell). The flight into the area and the chosen viewpoint allowed everyone to grasp and understand the scale and difficulty of the Mid Dome wilding management operation, either be it by helicopter boom spraying or with ground teams killing individual trees. Certainly a great experience and opportunity for those who attended to understand the difficulties of wilding control in New Zealand.

Richard Bowman explains the situation at Mid Dome 

Details

A recent survey by the Otago Regional Council asked Otago residents about their opinion in regards to managing wilding conifers. The responses showed that residents want the Council to take a more active approach when it comes to fighting wilding conifers in the region.

You can find an article on this survey and its results by clicking here.

 

Details