THE DYNAMICS OF LIFE: Visit To New Zealand -a unique educational experience

The Winter Course –Fall 2012 Study Abroad Program in New

Zealand basically focused on understanding New Zealand’s Bio-

Security issues with emphasis on invasive species.

We spend about more than two weeks starting December 27, 2012

until January 13, 2013. The study tour was exciting with the

beautiful summer time in New Zealand.

Study Group

During the trip, we got opportunity to visit Waipoua Forest in the Northlands and learned more about Die-Back disease and its impact on native Kauri trees. Some of the field eperiences and learnings are explained below:

What are Kauri Trees?

According to my field visit observation in the Waipoua Forest on the Northern Island, New Zealand and information obtained from Dr. Stanley Bellgard (Bio-control Plant Pathologist, Landcare Research, Auckland) Kauri trees are among the world’s biggest. They grow up to 50 meters high with trunk girths of up to 16 meters and can live for more than 2000 years. In the past, Kauri trees were used for timber, ship, boat building and constructing purposes.

Kauri-4 Sisters

Today, Kauri forests are home to many other trees and plants including kohekohe, Kirk’s pine, toatoa, tanekaha,rata and mant, plus different types of shrubs. Dr. Bellgard informed us that “Kauri trees have ability to modify the soil they live on, and create specialized habitats such as gumland” . Thus, Kauri trees are a major component of Waipoua forest ecosystem and biodiversity.

Tane Mahuta

Additionally, the Kauri trees have a spiritual significance to Maori, the native people of New Zealand. For example, Tane Mahuta, located in the Waipoua forest, is considered as the lord of the forest. It is the largest remaining kauri tree in the country. As per the information on sign post, Tane Mahuta is 51.5 meters tall, with a girth of 13.77 meters. During an open class lecture in Waipoua Forest, Dr. Steve Williams(Professor, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management University of Wyoming, mentioned that in recent years, the Kauri trees have substantially contributed to the tourism industry as they attract many tourists to Waipoua forest and other parts of New Zealand where they grow.These mightiest trees are considered the center of attractions particularly to the tourist.

Since 2008, one of the growing threats to these valuable trees is the deadly dieback disease caused by the fungus known as Phytophthora taxon Agathis (Beever et al., 2009).

Some of the Control Measures to combat Die Back Disease

1.Disease/pest control measures:

At first, any person visiting the Kauri forest needs to make sure that

their shoes were clean of soil before entering as in the picture

below. People need to wash their shoes with soapy water available

at the entrance and exit of the forest.

As mentioned by Dr. Bellgard, people need to be on the track at all

times due to the fact that any disturbance to soil around the roots

has a great possibility to spread the disease.

2. Control measures to minimize human and other animal intervention:There is a fixed track made inside the forest so that human intrusion into the forest is minimal This allows for minimum movement inside the forest so the soil and roots of Kauri and other shrubs would not get touched and disturbed.

Likewise, there are many board and signs to notify people so they become sensitive to protect Kauri trees. We saw sign boards which warned people to “Keep your dog on a leash at all times." It is learned that the dogs can inadvertently spread the disease if they disturb the soil around the trees. Therefore, people were warned and informed to keep dogs and animals away from Kauri as much as possible.

There were sign boards that restricted people for camping purposes in the Kauri Forest. This is mainly due to reason that more human movement inside the forest would disturb the delicate soil and roots of Kauri and other trees in the forest and in return, spread of disease would be controlled substantially.

3. Kauri and climate change:
It is predicted that the Kauri trees will be impacted by the rise in temperature (Ervin, 2011). It will be very hard for Kauri trees to bear extreme droughts due to less moisture content in soil. Dr. Bellgard informed me that the study on climate change and its impact is at early stage.

In addition, we also became familiar with some of the issues surrounding the dairy industry and sheep rearing activities in the region.

Dairy Farm

Sheep Shearing

Most importantly, during our trip to study abroad course in New Zeland,we were introduced to biological resources of the North Island of New Zealand (e.g. Kiwi (birds), Kauri (trees), tusked wetta (insects)) and the incursions that threaten these animals and plants species (e.g possums, pathogenic fungi, rodents, respectively). From these, the principles of bio-security were drawn and control measures derived and observed in some of New Zealand’s National Parks.