Over The Horizon

Safe Spraying and Scenic Scenarios

A new product that will help people to safely apply herbicides to forestry and agricultural crops from the air was launched in Rotorua recently.

Forest Research staff, in association with forest and agri-chemical industry representatives, have spent the last three years developing SpraySafe Manager, an adaptation of a US software package that can help operators to minimise adverse environmental and economic consequences of spray drift.

"Aerial application of weed- and pest-controlling chemicals to many plantation crops is an economic necessity. But it is equally necessary to apply these chemicals safely, and to prevent spray drift onto non-target areas," says Forest Research project leader Dr Jerzy Zabkiewicz.

SpraySafe Manager is an adaptation of a complex computer package originally developed by the US Forest Service.

"We have taken a tool that originally cost the US taxpayers many millions of dollars and have done a Kiwi thing to it," says Paul Smale, an independent forestry consultant.

"We have turned it into a relatively simple tool that can be used by anyone in the industry, from the helicopter pilot who needs to determine how to avoid spray drift on the day of application, to the forest manager who needs to calculate the economic consequences of various aerial spray operations."

Interest in forestry-based research has been two-way, with New Zealand research into the visual impacts of forestry operations attracting interest in the US. Forest Research scientist Alan Thorn has been collaborating with US researchers to develop SmartForest, which creates three-dimensional images of alternative forestry practices and their impacts on the landscape. The simulated images can be used in surveys of public opinion.

"US officials have been impressed with the results of our research to date, and are interested in incorporating our new ideas in their own efforts to minimise public land management conflicts," says Thorn.

Thorn and his colleagues develop 3D images depicting various forestry scenarios -- how the landscape may look immediately after harvesting, or within two, five or even 20 years after plantation re-establishment.

It can be applied to scenarios covering the use of buffer zones of amenity trees planted between the road edge and harvesting operations which screen these areas from public view. Public attitudes towards these different forestry management regimes can then be tested, and environmentally and aesthetically acceptable options incorporated into future forestry plans.

Thorn and his US collaborators have recently updated SmartForest to include an economic module.

"We can now illustrate what the economic consequences of various operations may be alongside their aesthetic, or visual, impacts on the landscape. This new development is attracting a great deal of interest from potential SmartForest users here and in the US."