A message from the editor
Horehound, Mackenzie Basin
The Weed Biocontrol team at Manaaki Whenua is fortunate to have been able to continue its work during the Covid-19 pandemic. For readers outside of New Zealand, we went into very strict Level 4 lockdown on 26 March for nearly 5 weeks and at the time of writing are in Level 3 (we are now currently at Level 1). At Level 4 we were required to stay at home in “our bubbles” with only essential workers allowed to attend workplaces as normal. Our team was relatively well set up to work from home at short notice as our organisation has recently been actively moving towards its staff being able to work anywhere, anytime.
Our major early concern was what would happen to our biocontrol agent cultures and plants, both inside and outside of containment, during Level 4. We were relieved to discover that this met the definition of essential work, since regular checks that containment facilities were secure were required. A skeleton staff of Arnaud Cartier, Zane McGrath and Chantal Probst were therefore able to go into work for short periods of time during lockdown to check that all was well and take care of our precious charges. Bob Brown was also able to look after his wasp biocontrol agents. It was a huge relief not to be faced with the prospect of losing all these cultures on top of the other many disappointments caused by Covid-19. With international travel likely to remain restricted, or difficult, for a long period of time, it might have been years before we could replace cultures if they had been lost.
At Level 3 people who were unable to work from home were allowed to return to work where it is safe to do so, but this was very strictly managed. This means some work in the molecular, and other, labs is restarting and some essential field work is being undertaken. With New Zealand’s move to Alert Level 2 in mid-May, physical distancing will still be critical and many of our staff will be continuing to work from home under Level 2. Please continue to contact us as normal via email or phone.
Planning very far ahead is obviously quite challenging. Even if New Zealand can, in the coming months, largely get back to business as usual within our own border, international aspects of our work are likely to be constrained for much longer. We are exploring innovative ways to allow project work to continue.
We have taken the opportunity while some work is on pause to begin a major refresh of the information sheets we collectively refer to as “The Biological Control of Weeds Book”. More on this in due course.
Finally, after 28 years of masterminding the production of quarterly issues of this newsletter I am handing over the reins to Angela Bownes so that I can focus on other things. A huge thanks to all the readers for their support and enthusiasm for this newsletter over the decades, without which it would have surely lapsed long ago. I have really appreciated all the feedback received after each issue. Angela will continue to ensure that you are kept abreast of all key developments in the world of weed biocontrol in New Zealand and will be happy to receive feedback, suggestions and offers of contributions.
Many thanks and stay safe everyone!
Lynley
CONTACT
Lynley Hayes - HayesL@landcareresearch.co.nz
Angela Bownes – BownesA@landcareresearch.co.nz