Freshwater Pests Partnerships Programme Monthly Update Teleconference - Minutes

Transcription

1 Freshwater Pests Partnerships Programme Monthly Update Teleconference - Minutes 26 July 2012, pm Attendees Rose Bird (MPI Adviser) Chair Melanie Russell (MPI Senior Adviser) Jeff Donaldson (Otago RC) Didymo Operations Manager Anna McKnight (Department of Conservation, Taupo) Bill Jarvie (Fish and Game Southland) Richard Bowman (Environment Southland) Richard Grimmett (Greater Wellington Regional Council Bubs Smith (Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board) Dave Cade (Department of Conservation) Apologies Maurice Rodway (Fish and Game Southland) Anna Paltridge (Department of Conservation, Canterbury) Jill Fulcher (Northland Regional Council) Lisa Talbot (Horizons) John Sanson (MPI) 1. Review Previous Meeting Minutes Summary of actions from last meeting The actions from the monthly teleconference held on 21June were discussed. Meeting Date Action Responsibility Status / Comments 19/04/2012 Update list of national multisport event organisers. Send CCD reminder to them 19/04/2012 Follow up on material for hut wardens briefings. Put together a folder on didymo. Orders to be done through Shelley Easthope (MPI) but DOC is to put the order in. 17/05/2012 Change the search pathway to the Didymo website so that it is Check Clean Dry and update the website content. 17/05/2012 Philippe to check with NZ Freshwater society definition of freshwater/aquatic Rose Bird/ Jeff Donaldson Anna McKnight Rose Bird work with the new marketing adviser (Jake Harvey) Philippe Gerbeaux In progress. Received contacts from Anna Paltridge and waiting on contacts from Didymo Dave. Anna has spoken with their hut warden in the Taupo Area (Jimmy) who suggested folders and spray bottles are not practical. Suggested having A3 posters in the huts. Anna Paltridge has offered to take the need for Check Clean Dry training for hut wardens before they start their season to head office. It may also be worthwhile to have permanent cleaning stations at huts e.g. similar to the Kauri Dieback cleaning stations To be completed before the summer season Philippe has lodged a request and is waiting for the reply. Added to the Steering Group/CCDAG August meeting agenda for a directive. 21/06/2012 Audit of collateral in the regions Rose Bird In progress. Have received feedback from some regions and will match this with information Judith was sent. 1

2 21/06/2012 Update events information PDF and add to MPI website 21/06/2012 Update the FAQ section of the website/knowledge base for future student enquiries Rose Bird In progress. Will send out the events information letter once the contacts are all in. Rose Bird/Jeff Donaldson/Anna Paltridge In progress 2. Partner Regional Updates Anna McKnight Didymo Dave Jeff Donaldson The Taupo area is busy spending money for the end of the year including getting banners printed for boat storage facilities. DOC Taupo have also been provided with a display space in the Tongariro National Park Visitor Centre which is a great privilege and opportunity especially with the increasing freshwater activity in the area. DOC is considering options for furnishing the space with Check Clean Dry information and may hire a professional. If anyone in the regions has any ideas for display or knows of anyone who may be able to help, please get in touch with Anna. A set of fibreglass pest fish have been purchased with remaining pest fish funds. These are a great resource that may be shared around the regions as they come in there own wooden cases. Cam Speedy is working with a wash down facility to manage the movement of hornwort. DOC Taupo have been allocated free advertisement space at Greenstone Fishing, will be sending out packs of information to all those who buy licences. After Dave s presentation at the NETS Biosecurity Conference last week the Animal Health Board have been in touch and asked him to be a motivational speaker at their meeting in September. It is a great opportunity and will be good to get some coordinated messaging out there. As part of the banners Anna talked about, DOC ran a banner competition with the winner being real men keep their tackle free from weeds with the Check Clean Dry message underneath. Dave believes this will target those fishers that move between rivers. Dave has also been asked to recite at National Poetry day tomorrow. Mel and Rose visited Queenstown and had the chance to see didymo and lagarosiphon. Interesting to see that there was no didymo in the Hawea and more didymo in the Balclutha than has been seen in a long time. Two new MPI communications staff members (Jake Harvey and Tim Amos) are coming down to visit Jeff in Queenstown next week. The NETS Biosecurity Conference went well with Didymo Dave giving a fantastic presentation that motivated everyone into a better mind set. From his presentation New Zealand Dive and Salvage Ltd approached Jeff with a field trial for controlling didymo that they conducted with ultrasound. The use of ultrasound may be far more palatable than Gemex and as we have lost the emergency powers to use Gemex, we would require consent from the Regional Council to use it. NZ Dive and Salvage Ltd have been asked to present at the Steering Group. Richard Bowman Not too much has been happening with didymo, but have been looking at lagarosiphon. Jeff mentioned that lagarosiphon has been found in new rivers in Queenstown. Spraying will be occurring later in the month with direct application in a flowing river by Aqua Tech. It is a good chance to practice the application of herbicide in a flowing river. Also went to the NETS conference and was highly impressed by Didymo Dave s presentation and staggered that didymo hasn t reached the North Island yet. 2

3 Richard Grimmett Bill Jarvie Bubs Smith Lisa Talbot Have been looking at broader aquatics especially up around Lake Wairarapa with hornwort. Have completed a survey of the rivers around the Wairarapa and haven t found anything they didn t expect to see. In terms of hornwort, the council have targeted Boggy Pond in Lake Wairarapa and have had good success. A long term project is surveying every body of water in the Wairarapa. Glad to see an article on TV in Lake Rotoehu with a floating oxygenator/floating mat. Anticipating another busy season over the five major lakes in the region and the smaller ones in between. Waiting for confirmation on funding for advocacy. Bill sent through an article on the highly concentrated numbers of freedom campers on the upper Waiau River at Queens Reach. The unofficial camping ground is in very close proximity to the water where didymo is prolific. There has been some discussion around upgrading the facilities at the site. Queens Reach has a very popular boat ramp with minimal to adequate signage that may need to be upgraded especially with the potential to spread the message to a relatively captive audience. Rose will make sure Peeky is aware of the foreign language pamphlets before the summer season. Nothing more to add to Anna and Dave s report. Lisa was not able to attend the meeting but ed through her update to be tabled Horizons region is looking at getting translations done for their multi language folders for tourism operators. If the cover of the folder has the heading Protect NZ or Keep NZ beautiful (or anything else any other regions can suggest?) in a persons own language, they are more likely to engage with the resource and actually learn how to Check, Clean, Dry effectively. If translations can be made, Lisa is happy to prepare more folders for other regions to use as well. Organisation for a CCD promotion/training event is underway. This event is for frontline tourism and sport staff/operators to learn how to o Be effective advocates for CCD in NZ o Use CCD resources to the best advantage o Learn the latest data and current best practice procedures for effective CCD o Take away enough resources to last the coming season. It will be an afternoon/evening event sometime in late August.. If anyone else wants to assist/participate, please contact Lisa directly at lisa@conscious.org.nz or CCD people from all over NZ will be more than welcome to attend. 3. MPI Coordination Update The terms of reference have been updated and sent to the teleconference group for review. Didymo.net was down for a short time last week due to the hosting provider for the site changing the IP address, All has been quiet from the Didymo inbox except for a PhD student has asked for permission to use the data in the didymo sample database for her thesis. We have asked to see a copy of her thesis and any published articles once it is complete. Preparation for the Steering Group and CCDAG meetings is underway. Current work involved trying to get representation on the Steering Group from Fish and Game. Contact has been made with Hamish Carnachan in Wellington, Bill confirmed he is a good contact to speak with. Mel attended the Biosecurity Institute s NETS conference in Taupo on the July. It was great to see freshwater topics well represented with a plenary talk from Didymo Dave on Building Conservation Intelligence: 3

4 engaging communities in the work that we do and a talk by Cam Speedy on Biodiversity and Biosecurity a hydro-generators perspective. 4. Check Clean Dry Research/Messaging With Judith leaving at the end of June, Leigh Parker has stepped in to work with Mel and Rose in the communication space. With input from Jeff we have been looking at the content and format of the Help slow the spread brochures and the event organiser s checklist and letter. We are currently amending the whitebaiting CCD fact sheet and are hoping to get a communication out before the season starts on the 15 th of August. We have two new people starting in the communications team who will be working on the Check Clean Dry Programme. Primary contact will be Jake Harvey, the new Senior Marketing Adviser. He is starting at the end of July and will be doing a fieldtrip down to see Jeff within that week. Leigh has circulated a Salvinia and water hyacinth joint communication ( was released by MPI and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. It has also been linked to the Didymo website under the Related Links heading in the top right hand corner. We have also been made aware of an iphone or android app in Ireland which can be used to identify invasive freshwater pests Has been sent to MPI communications team and they will look into the plausibility developing a similar app. 5. General Business Terms of Reference Bubs suggested changing the wording of section 4 to in all dealings within and outside the group. Rose will circulate a final version of these terms of reference. Rebranding Richard Bowman asked what was planned for the Check Clean Dry signage and messaging in light of the change from MAF Biosecurity to MPI. Discussed that the Check Clean Dry messaging will stay the same but the Biosecurity logo must be removed from existing signs by June Some work has been done with the MPI Communications team and Clemengers with the new MPI green colour but realise that it does not have the same recognition as the CCD yellow. Discussion on re-branding will take place at the Steering Group/CCD Advisory Group meetings in August. The Taupo area is having their fisheries signs redesigned and currently have the Biosecurity NZ logo but not the MAF logo. Mel advised that the Biosecurity NZ branding cannot be used anymore as another company has now taken the name. Can use the MPI brand now if needed. Advocacy Didymo Dave mentioned that Amy Grees from Rotoroa is looking to hire a summer Check Clean Dry advocate. If anyone knows of anyone suitable in the area please get in touch with Amy or Dave. 4

5 Actions from this meeting From meeting Action 26/07/2012 Provide a copy of the NZ Dive and Salvage Ltd field trial for distribution to the teleconference group. 26/07/2012 Contact Peeky about foreign language pamphlets for freedom campers and provide if required. Also contact Lisa and see if our current pamphlets can help with the Horizons regions multi-language folders for tourism operators. Responsibility Jeff Donaldson Rose Bird 26/07/2012 Provide Anna with details of Steering Group Representatives Rose Bird 26/07/2012 Make changes to the Terms of Reference and distribute Rose Bird 26/07/2012 Mel to work with Anna McKnight on the MPI logo for signage Mel Russell/Anna McKnight Next Meeting Thursday 16 August, pm Phone: PIN: