Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 16


     
     1        stage is the critical stage, and we are inclined to use a
     2        pesticide called Permethrin by treating the actual
     3        seedlings themselves before they are planted.  So, that it
     4        is not actually applied to the ground; it is applied to the
     5        seedling.  This protects the individual plant in its first
     6        year of growth.
     7
     8   Q.   That is used as a matter of course, is it?
     9        A.  It is used as a matter of course in those areas where
    10        that problem is prevalent, but it is certainly not used
    11        where it is not because it would be uneconomic to do so.
    12
    13   Q.   Serious infections, are they more likely in plantation
    14        forests, in general?
    15        A.  Are we talking about infections at the early stage of
    16        growth or infections at any time in a forest?
    17
    18   Q.   At any time.
    19        A.  I think it is difficult to say they are more prevalent
    20        in plantation forest than forest which is regenerated
    21        naturally, because the attack of particular types of pests
    22        can sweep right through forests of all kind.
    23
    24   Q.   They can do, but what is the general prevalence of
    25        infections as a comparison between plantations and natural
    26        forests?
    27        A.  I think I have to give the answer that in so far as an
    28        area which has got a potential of a weevil attacking the
    29        small plants when they are first sown will have been
    30        protected, so that there is no outbreak.  Therefore, to
    31        that extent the actual consequences of the attack of pests
    32        is very low in the plantations.
    33
    34        In the naturally regenerated forests, you very frequently
    35        have a very high abundance of small plants, naturally
    36        seeded, and those that are lost are only a proportion, and
    37        I do not think there is a great deal of difference.  The
    38        attack is either going to happen in a plantation or in
    39        natural forest naturally, but the purpose of plantation
    40        having treated the seedlings before planting is to avoid
    41        it, so in practical terms there is no more infestation of
    42        this kind of weevil attack in plantation than in a natural
    43        forest.
    44
    45   Q.   If the seedlings were not treated, though, then there would
    46        be more infections, would there?
    47        A.  There is very little treatment of the kind we are
    48        referring to of seedlings in the northern hemisphere.  In
    49        Finland and Sweden, the conditions for the weevils to
    50        attack the early plantations in the first year of their 
    51        growth just do no not seem to apply.  Therefore, they are 
    52        able to use far less in the way of pesticides than might 
    53        apply in such an area where such an infestation could
    54        occur.
    55
    56   Q.   If we move down to the second half of the page:  "Many
    57        forests exist naturally, either in monocultures or in
    58        association with only a few species as, for example, in
    59        temporate coniferous forests and the nothofagus forest of
    60        New Zealand."  When you say "exists naturally" -----

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