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Newsletter 118, February 2019

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New Zealand Farm Forestry Association
NZFFA
P.O. Box 10349
The Terrace
Wellington 6143
www.nzffa.org.nz

Farm Forestry Members Newsletter

   Newsletter 118, February 2019
In this issue

Rural and Fire safety

Help keep New Zealand's forests safe from pests, diseases and weeds

Health and safety question

Poplar and willow newsletter

Contacts

President
Neil Cullen
cullen@farmside.co.nz
-North Otago
-Mid Otago
-South Otago
-Southland
-Sthn High Country (south)

Immediate Past President & Newsletter editor
Dean Satchell
dsatch@gmail.com
-Far North
-Mid North

National Office
Savannah
admin@nzffa.org.nz
Phone: 04 4720432

Executive
Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz
-Taupo & Districts
-Middle Districts
-Hawkes Bay
-Gisborne East Coast
-Taranaki

Michael Orchard
 orchards@xtra.co.nz
-West Coast
-Marlborough
-Nelson

Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz
-Wairarapa
-Wellington

Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz
-North Canterbury
-Central Canterbury
-Ashburton
-South Canterbury

Peter Berg
thebergs@ihug.co.nz
-Lower North
-Waitomo
-Waikato
-Bay of Plenty

Don Wallace
don@wallace.gen.nz
-At large

 

Members

The members area of the NZFFA website can be accessed by using your email address and password to log in.

Your email address MUST be the address you have provided to NZFFA for your subscription (which happens to be the one this newsletter was sent to...).

If you don't have a password or can't remember it, you can get one very easily. Just follow the instructions here.

Any problems logging in then email me.

Dean Satchell, website administrator



e-Newsletter
If you are receiving this e-newsletter and don't want to, please notify NZFFA by replying.

 

 

Events

For more information on these events, they are posted on the NZFFA website >>
Branch secretaries, please make sure you notify head office of any branch or action group events.

  • Log export market update – joint meeting with NZIF, Wellington  2018 was another period of strong markets for NZ log exporters although some uncertainties lie ahead. Key challenges coming up include the trade war between China and the US, infrastructure…
  • 2019 Biosecurity Conference  Operational biosecurity: We're all responsible for making it happen Where: Scion (Rimu Room) When: March 5-6 Optional dinner at Urbano Bistro on 5 and 6 March The theme is operational biosecurity, and…
  • Forestry Labour market symposium  Event to be held at the following time, date and location:  Wednesday, 6 March 2019 from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm (NZDT)  South Waikato Sport and Events Centre 25 Mossop…
  • Taranaki branch AGM  To be held at the property of Michael Parsons, 259 Parsons Road, Whenuakura at 11.00 am Saturday, 9th March 2019
  • SafeTree Conference  When: 13th and 14th March Where: Sudima Christchurch Airport Hotel, Christchurch FISC and FICA are proud to partner to get our foresters home safe each night. Click here for a detailed…
  • Taranaki branch field day  When: Saturday 23 March 2019 HOSTS: Bob and Janet Howe and Ivan and Donna Howe – Urenui/Uruti Meet at 9.00 am at Ivan’s, 68 Wharekauri Rd (Phone 06 752 3220) for 4WD car-pooling. Members can…
  • Hawkes Bay branch AGM  When: 13 April Where: The Alexander property, Puketapu. Springvale and Bridgewater Heather Holdsworth 06 879 7962
  • Forest Phenotyping Workshop  Presenting the proof of concept and modelling approach. How can industry take it up? Two identical workshops will be held: Friday 3rd May 2019, Christchurch (at Scion, 10 Kyle St)…

Blogs

  • Is an IKEA store to our advantage? Wink Sutton's Blog, February, 2019.  IKEA is possibly to begin trading in New Zealand. Should New Zealand forest owners be pleased? Already New Zealand has large retailers including The Warehouse, Harvey Norman, K Mart, Mitre10…
  • Residues as fuel Brian Cox's Blog, February, 2019.  The decision by the Government of British Columbia to introduce policy reforms which require greater added value processing of wood within Canada, rather than export of unprocessed logs, shows that…

NZFFA members can set up their own blogs on the NZFFA website. Email Dean.


Headlines

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Rural and Fire safety

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has prepared the following material on rural fires and safety:

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Help keep New Zealand's forests safe from pests, diseases and weeds

To make reporting biosecurity risks as easy as possible we have developed a new smartphone app. The Find-A-Pest app (http://www.findapest.nz) allows anyone to quickly and simply report pests, diseases, and weeds and get feedback from experts within the forest sector or from iNaturalist NZ. 

App testing is being be carried out by selected case study groups in Northland, Auckland, and Southland with a focus on weeds, and nationally via forestry and kiwifruit industry bodies for a broader range of pests. Testing is taking place from now to April 2019.

We need your help 

We are looking for more people to join our forestry case study, to help keep NZ’s forests safe from pests, diseases and weeds. 

We need people who are working on the ground in our forests to download the Find-A-Pest app, and report anything they think could be a suspicious pest, disease or weed. 

Download the app

The app is available for Android or iPhone and is free and simple to use.  Download the app via this LINK.

Alert for southern South Islanders: please keep a special look-out for the poplar sawfly. A single caterpillar was recently found in the Dunedin area and anyone in the region is encouraged to look for this species. You can find a factsheet about the Poplar sawfly front and centre in the forestry pest gallery.


Poplar sawfly adult


Poplar sawfly larvae feeding

How to use it 

Check out our short help video that explains how simple it is to make your first observation. A team of volunteers from iNaturalist NZ and forest health experts from throughout New Zealand then swings into action and helps you identify what you have seen. Identifications and comments are then fed back to you via your phone. 

Functionality includes offline use for uploading when back in range of wifi or mobile reception, factsheets to help users learn what pests to look out for and te reo Maori translations of key information. Reported data will add to a database of information about existing and new pests in New Zealand. Unless the suspected pest is considered new to New Zealand, app users should not expect biosecurity officers to contact them about the reported pest.

For more information check out Find-A-Pest and its helpful online tutorials.

Contributing to biosecurity in New Zealand 

The future of the app will be determined by the results from across the testing groups. Your contribution could help make this app a success.

The ‘Find-A-Pest’ smartphone app trial is a Biological Heritage National Science Challenge research project led by Scion and Lincoln University with support from Biosecurity New Zealand (part of Ministry for Primary Industries), the Forest Owners Association, New Zealand Farm Forestry Association, Envirolink, Te Tira Whakamātaki, Kiwifruit Vine Health, Zespri and iNaturalist NZ.

The app does not replace Biosecurity New Zealand’s exotic pests and diseases hotline (0800 80 99 66), which should be used as normal to report any suspected exotic pests.

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Health and safety question

One of our members asked the following question:

I have some questions around production thinning a block of trees. I intend to do this work myself on a small scale using farm tractor, probably a 22 tonne load every few months. Therefore do I need to advise Worksafe of my intentions? As I am not employing anyone, do i need to have a comprehensive Health and Safety plan?

Julian Bateson, NZFFA Health and Safety Representative responds:

If you are doing the work and you are getting any financial return for your work – in other words selling the trees, then you are operating as a business. This means the Health and Safety at Work Act applies to what you do.

You can find plenty of information in the Health and Safety section of the NZFFA website.

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Poplar and willow newsletter

Once a year the Poplar and Willow Research Trust produces a Newsletter for distribution to partners and associates who are supportive of the work of the Trust.

The Newsletter provides an update on Trust activities and also notes the increasing recognition of trees in contributing to better environmental outcomes; in particular that poplar and willow plantings provide greenhouse gas mitigation, soil stability, enhanced water quality, shade, shelter, food for bees and timber while supporting pastoral farming.

It also highlights two new Trust Initiatives

1.      Supporting a "More trees on Farms" collaborative approach

2.      Appointing a number of Poplar and Willow Ambassadors

Download Newsletter »

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Disclaimer: Personal views expressed in this newsletter are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the NZ Farm Forestry Association.

 

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