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Cristina Venables and Nicola Fuller- Lord Howe Island Response — Transcript

by Plant Conservation Australia · 2,306 words · 378 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:05good morning everyone
0:06um first I'd just like to acknowledge
0:07the traditional custodians of the land
0:09that we're meeting on today and pay
0:11respect to Elders past present and
0:13emerging and also thank everyone for
0:16sharing their perspectives and stories
0:17on that this morning
0:19um so my name is Nicola Fuller I'm the
0:22team leader flora and weeds at the Lord
0:24Howe Island board and I'm joined by my
0:26colleague Christina venables the team
0:28leader environment and world heritage
0:31um so we'll be sharing our experiences
0:34responding to an incursion of modal rust
0:37on the island this year
0:40um so first off just some context Lord
0:43Howe is
0:44roughly 700 kilometers Northeast of
0:47Sydney it's
0:491455 hectares in area so roughly 12 K's
0:53long and three kilometers at its widest
0:55point
0:56um we work for the Lord Howe Island
0:58board so this is the main government
1:00organization on the island it's got a
1:04lot of the functions of a local
1:06government but also state and federal
1:08responsibilities as well
1:10uh it's part of New South Wales but we
1:13also have our own legislation the Lord
1:14Howe Island act from 1953. and 75 of the
1:19island is permanent park preserve or PPP
1:22which is essentially equivalent to
1:24National Park
1:26so there's a resident population of only
1:28450 people as well as a cap on tourists
1:32so 400 are allowed on at any one time
1:34just to limit impact to the natural
1:36environment it was world heritage listed
1:40in 1982 and has a really successful
1:43conservation history with a big focus on
1:46removing invasive pest species
1:50so just a snapshot of the vegetation as
1:54an isolated island there are high levels
1:56of endemism so we have 241 native
1:59vascular plant species 40 47 of which
2:02are endemic so there are only five
2:06motasium species two Metro Citrus a
2:08Melaleuca and the spermum and sizeium
2:11but these are pretty widespread
2:13throughout our vegetation communities
2:15particularly in the southern Mountains
2:17and the critically endangered ecological
2:19ecological Community the nullmossi cloud
2:22forest
2:24um so on top of this there's also
2:25roughly 40 introduced motasi species so
2:28these are primarily in gardens in the
2:30settlement area but also include some
2:33invasive species in the PPP as well
2:39so this is a little timeline
2:43um and from the time that metal rust was
2:45first discovered on Mainland Australia
2:48there was a concerted effort for
2:50management on the island to prepare us
2:52for its arrival
2:54and I think these preparations were
2:56really pivotal for both the 2016 and
2:582023 incursions
3:00so in 2011 they ran susceptibility tests
3:04with the csiro with the Lord how Ireland
3:07species in 2012 we had Bob mackinson
3:10come over and run some identification
3:11training with Lord Howell Island board
3:13staff and community
3:15in 2013 we installed boot scrub bays at
3:18the trackheads for all of the walks to
3:21stop any potential pathogens entering
3:24the park
3:25and in 2014 the plant importation policy
3:28and strategy were both updated and the
3:31import of motasis species was prohibited
3:35um they also developed a modal rust
3:37response plan in 2015 which was pretty
3:39timely because in 2016 it was first
3:42detected on the island and so this was
3:44first identified by a leaseholder it was
3:46found at two properties
3:49um both times on a rose apple and it was
3:52treated the island was searched they
3:54didn't detect it anywhere further and it
3:56was not seen again until the 3rd of
3:59February this year
4:02um
4:03so it was again reported by a
4:07leaseholder and the identification was
4:09confirmed by lhib staff
4:12so it was found at an initial property
4:14and the adjoining property it was on
4:16exotic species so a bottle brush and
4:18putakawa
4:20straight away we restricted access to
4:22the plants and communicated the risk of
4:25potentially spreading the pathogen to
4:27the leaseholders we developed a field
4:30data collection app on the first day so
4:33we were entering all of our search data
4:35into that from day one of the response
4:37which I think was also really important
4:40um we identified high priority areas to
4:42search and started searching those right
4:44away so we searched the nursery and so
4:47all the adjoining properties and also
4:49some plantings that had high levels of
4:51motacy species in them we sent out comms
4:55to the community to alert them of the
4:57incursion and we also set up our expert
4:59panel many of whom are in this room
5:01today and yeah their advice throughout
5:03the whole response was absolutely
5:04critical to what we did
5:07um so this is just a little output from
5:10our field data collection so the really
5:13high concentration of pink points is all
5:17about search data from the settlement
5:18and so
5:20not one point one point can represent
5:23many plants rather than just one and
5:25that was where the focus of our initial
5:27response was because that's where we
5:28were finding motor rust we then moved
5:31out to the PPP and expanded that search
5:33when time permitted us to do that
5:37So within the first Fortnight we had
5:39searched and mapped almost tasty species
5:41in the settlement so that was 2 300
5:43plants within the first week
5:46um after that first week of searches we
5:49did unfortunately find a third property
5:50with motor rust infected plants on the
5:5210th of Feb
5:53we treated all of the infected leases
5:56with Fungicide and preventatively
5:58sprayed neighboring blocks where that
6:00was appropriate or feasible
6:02and we restricted access to known sites
6:05and implemented additional hygiene
6:06measures so adding boot scrub base to
6:09those sites providing
6:11leaseholders with metho to spray their
6:13boots down and having really strict
6:15hygiene protocols for our staff going in
6:17and out
6:18uh we also had a really big focus on
6:20education and awareness raising so we
6:23presented to all of our staff at the
6:25board which is roughly 60 people on the
6:27identification of motoras and the risks
6:29Associated and developed informative
6:32posters to put around the island and at
6:34all the trackheads
6:35we alluded the incoming researchers of
6:39the threat and asked them to take extra
6:40by security precautions and we also
6:43requested some support from National
6:45Parks and Wildlife Services because we
6:47realized we were going to be pretty busy
6:48for the next couple of months
6:51um
6:52so again this is just another map
6:54showing a bit of the effort we've got
6:56the settlement area outlined there so
7:00all of those green points are monitoring
7:01points of mitasi species
7:05um the orange points are where we
7:07detected motoras so there were further
7:09two properties down south that were
7:11found later on in the response and all
7:14of the purple areas are where we treated
7:16with fungicides so whether that was
7:18preventatively or curatively
7:22pass over to Christine
7:26all right so
7:28um as we went through the searches and
7:30we started to find Myrtle rust down
7:32South we realized it was within 250
7:35meters now of the PPP and it was
7:38vegetated really connected so we decided
7:40to close the PPP to help protect it and
7:44also give us the time and the manpower
7:45to start searching there as well too so
7:48we developed this threat status map
7:49which looked at
7:51um
7:52mapping all of the vegetation
7:54communities where there was a high
7:56number of martesi species and then also
7:59looking at the threatened status of that
8:02vegetation community and coming up with
8:04this risk map so as you can see in the
8:07southern area there's a lot higher risk
8:10of Myrtle risk potentially having larger
8:13impacts
8:18so our treatment strategy
8:20um was just trying to get on things as
8:22quickly as possible as soon as any new
8:25infections were detected we did start to
8:27treat with fungicides there were three
8:30to four treatments of fungus of
8:31alternating fungicides for every
8:33infected plant plants were then stem
8:36injected that had been infected and
8:39removed any new growth was removed from
8:42the plant as well and solarized the plan
8:44was to solarize all of the plants
8:46however the biomass would have been
8:48massive so we did need to come up with
8:51an alternative method and so once the
8:53plant was fully dead it had been treated
8:55multiple times with fungicide we did
8:57fell the tree and chipper it and the
9:00wood chips were to remain on site for a
9:02minimum of three months so they weren't
9:03moved
9:06um Community Education and involvement
9:08was also really important throughout our
9:10treatment
9:11we did presentations at the public hall
9:14numerous emails to the Community
9:17Information packs one-on-one meetings
9:20with lower Hill Island tourism tour
9:23operators lodges to help us with any
9:27Myrtle rest sightings so that as soon as
9:28anything was seen we could jump on it
9:32so just a quick snapshot of some of our
9:35efforts 13 different species were
9:38treated 254 plants were killed or
9:42removed
9:43we did only find 23 infected plants but
9:46603 were sprayed with fungicide
9:50and you can see the majority of the
9:52species infected were bottle brush or
9:55pohutikawa
9:59and again some more stats from our
10:01response effort just to show how much
10:04time and effort was put into this of
10:07note 12
10:09547 mertasi plants were inspected and it
10:13equated to
10:15556 people days inspecting those plants
10:21so what we learned is community and
10:23education was really pivotal the early
10:26identification of Myrtle rust helped us
10:29to get on it and contain
10:32oh thank you
10:34that rapid response was really essential
10:37treating the plants as soon as possible
10:39to prevent the spread
10:41mapping our martacy species was really
10:45important to ensure that we weren't
10:47missing potential new infections we were
10:49getting on them as quickly as possible
10:51and will also help in future for future
10:54incursions and as well help us identify
10:56exotic martacy species to Target for
10:59removal
11:01uh it's really critical for us to
11:04protect our endemic or tasty species
11:06there are only five but his necklace
11:08said they're everywhere and we don't
11:10have exit to you populations for them
11:12outside of Lord how yet
11:14at least not all of them
11:16um
11:17that understanding that the threat of
11:18incursion is definitely going to happen
11:20again we can do things to reduce it but
11:22we can't stop it
11:24and that we were incredibly lucky during
11:26both incursions
11:29so some of the future opportunities that
11:31we're looking for is to continue that
11:33communication and education with
11:35visitors and tour operators and the
11:37local community to ensure that vigilance
11:39is maintained and precautions
11:42biosecurity precautions are taken
11:45improving the biosecurity measures
11:47before visitors even arrive to the
11:49island so try and removed the human
11:50Vector as much as possible
11:52uh as I said the collection of germplasm
11:55and establishment of exit Chi
11:57populations
11:58looking at improving our monitoring and
12:00early detection methods so I've been
12:02really interested to speak to a lot of
12:04you here here today
12:07um other novel methods for uh remote
12:10treatment of Myrtle rust as you could
12:12see from the island it's very
12:15mountainous if Myrtle Rust ever got into
12:18the PPP our current treatment methods
12:20would be completely prohibitive
12:22um
12:23so we couldn't have done anything
12:25and yeah looking to sample and analyze
12:27rust loads in the air including
12:29sporelation in atmospheric modeling and
12:31mapping and predictions of other
12:34potential plant pathogens the foresight
12:36that we had to to do the preparation
12:39that we did around murder rust was
12:40really great and making sure that we
12:43stay on top of anything else in the
12:45future
12:47um just a great talk I'm really
12:49interested to know it did you have any
12:51feedback from the community around
12:53especially your fungicide spraying you
12:55know there's often there's a
12:57some form of
12:59communication sometimes
13:05I have a a pesticide use application
13:08plan notification plan sorry so we did
13:11try and let the community know ahead of
13:13time when we were going to be spraying
13:14in public areas signs were always put
13:17out ahead of time telling what what we
13:19were using and at what concentrations
13:23um we had our crews starting at 5am to
13:25avoid getting into people there was
13:29obviously some pushback I don't think
13:30you can use pesticides anywhere without
13:32that but we did it as fairly as possible
13:36and yeah people really did understand
13:38the threat so we're mainly for it thanks
13:49yeah so obviously you could never get
13:51100
13:53um follow through with requests but we
13:55have always had
13:57um advice to our own contractors and
14:00volunteers to launder all their clothes
14:03and spray all their Gear with metho we
14:06do have a biosecurity checklist that a
14:07lot of the or one of the Airlines and a
14:10lot of the travel agents do send out to
14:12guests so it does advise them to spray
14:15their outdoor gear and shoes and
14:17everything with metho and to bring
14:19wandered clothes we can't force people
14:21to do that but in the height of the
14:23response we did have someone greeting
14:25all passengers at the airport
14:29um bringing them spraying them down
14:30having the boot scrub Bay placed there
14:33and just educating them so that they
14:35were able to do it if they wished we
14:38made the metho spray available at all of
14:41the transit lounges at The Lodges so
14:42that they had access to that
14:44and we're also getting some we do still
14:48have like a boot scrub Bay but we're
14:49just going to get some mats at the
14:51airport to make it a bit more
14:52streamlined
14:53yeah so so we
14:58it's it's sprayed properly yeah
15:00effective yep that was the advice yep
15:05yeah and we know that there's there are
15:07still some gaps there's more that we can
15:09be doing and um that's our plan in the
15:11future is to to tighten up those
15:13biosecurity messages
15:15to try and get people to do that
15:17voluntary compliance and make sure
15:18everything's clean before they arrive

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