Talks on pine blight

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 2

Talks on pine blight

PA Wellington The special dothistroma working group set up by the Government meets for the first time today, says the Forest Service.

The group is chaired by the Director-General of Forests, Mr Andy Kirkland, and includes representatives, of the Department of Health

the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Massey University, the Ministry of Agriculture, the private forest industry, and the unions involved. “The group will consider the need for further research on dothistroma, the chemical produced in trees infected with dothistroma, and the possibility that it may be a health hazard,” Mr Kirkland said yesterday. The group would also look at the ways forest practices could be modified to minimise any possible risk, he said. The new forest disease advisory committee also meets today at Rotorua. Its chairman, Mr Alan

Familton, said it would discuss immediate ways that the level of dothistroma infection in forests could be controlled and reduced. “This applies mainly to radiata pine forests which become immune to dothistroma at about 16 years of age,” he said. The commmittee would also consider what realistic controls could be applied to other species, such as ponderosa pine and corsican pine which did not have the same immunity.