This surveillance programme is funded by the Forest Industry, and is primarily aimed at the early detection of new or significant pests in the exotic forest estate, using a combination of aerial and drive-through surveys and intensive sampling. In 2005 Target Pest was awarded the contract to deliver the entire programme for two years.

The Forest Owners Association decided to enhance the programme by the introduction of the Permanent Viewpoint System (PVP). This surveillance system uses permanent plots to monitor and assess changes in forest health and condition over time.

Although developed by Carter Holt a number of years ago, PVP system is still very much in its infancy with  development still occurring.

From July 2005 – June 2006 Target Pest successfully surveyed around 1.2 m ha of exotic forest estate covering over 2,000 distinct forest blocks.

Thankfully no new to New Zealand pests were detected during the survey, but a number of forest health problems were identified and around 20 significant records were entered on the MAF *PPIN database. (See the chart on right).

The number of records is significant to Target Pest and the industry for several reasons. First and foremost it is a performance measure demonstrating that both survey skills and methods are used by our staff are of the highest order, in fact well exceeding tallies by previous providers.

Also significant is that the forest survey accounted for around 22% of all major pest detections on trees, which is interesting when considering the small number of host species represented in plantation forests.