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" -----
