Forest health surveillance in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Summary It has been over a decade since Forests NSW established a forest health survey unit (FHSU), with the first formal surveys beginning in January 1996. The unit was established due to a growing need for more formal detection, delineation and recording of pest and disease outbreaks, both endemic and exotic, and to ensure continuation of forest health expertise within Forests NSW. Forest health surveys are concentrated on eucalypt and Pinns plantations. For pine plantations (predominantly Pinus radiata), aerial and follow-up ground surveys are conducted of most of the plantation estate annually. For eucalypts (Eucalyptus spp. and Corymbia spp.) ground surveys have been the predominant methodology, due to the dispersed nature of the estate, with aerial surveys becoming a regular feature only in the past few years because of the importance of a new insect pest (a psyllid, Creiis lituratus). The FHSU provides advice on management of detected health problems, and data collected during surveys are used for national reporting requirements. There have been limited surveys of native forest, and no post-border1 surveys for early detection of exotic incursions. Most private growers in NSW have been reluctant to conduct forest health surveys using trained experts. Aerial surveys have predominantly used typical sketchmapping procedures on hardcopy maps, but are now conducted using a digital aerial sketchmapping (DASM) system with a pen-based PC tablet. Efficiencies and accuracies gained with the DASM system have interested native forest managers and private eucalypt growers in cost-acceptable forest health surveys. The benefits of forest health surveys include early detection of pest and disease outbreaks, advice on operational management of health problems, identifying research priorities, providing data for annual reporting requirements, and detecting new and emerging pests and diseases.