Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 26/Jul 00:28

Perth bearing the brunt of the shot-hole borer

Perth’s leafy western suburbs are bearing the brunt of an exotic pest that is threatening the future of the city’s already dismal urban tree canopy. Source: WA Today Data obtained by this masthead shows inner-city councils have logged the highest number of premises infected with polyphagous shot-hole borer with Nedlands leading the pack with 345 cases followed by Melville (145) and Claremont (105). Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development deputy director-general Mia Carbon said the $44 million response to the south-east Asian beetle was the single biggest biosecurity response undertaken in the department’s history. The pest kills trees via boring holds in trees, in which it plants a fungus that it farms for food – but which stops trees transferring nutrients, slowly killing them. More than 1200 infected premises are confirmed to have the pest that has yet to spread past the metropolitan area. An infected premise is an individual site which may have more than one tree confirmed as positive. “To date more than 3000 trees have been removed from across the metropolitan area to curb the spread of the pest and more than 850 trees have been pruned,” she said. “The department understands the significant value of trees to the community…DPIRD is ensuring everything is being done to contain the spread across the Perth metropolitan area.” But Opposition leader Libby Mettam said the epidemic could change the face of Perth forever and the state government needed to act more urgently to help local governments fight the pest “It is an agricultural disaster in waiting,” she said. “The Cook Labor government should have gone hard and should have gone early, but they have failed to effectively ensure that this epidemic is eradicated.” Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal candidate for Churchlands Basil Zempilas said the biosecurity emergency was the equivalent of “COVID for trees”. “To this point, the state government has dealt with it like it’s a cold, and only now, three years later, are popping off to the chemist to get some Codral,” he said. Zempilas said in the City of Perth alone the beetle could wipe out 60% of its 16,000 trees. City of Canning deputy mayor and Liberal candidate for Riverton Amanda Spencer-Teo said trees earmarked for removal months ago had yet to be chopped down prompting some councils to take matters into their own hands and hire arborists. But she warned the time would come when councils could no longer afford to fund the removal of affected trees. “DPIRD are doing a fantastic job with what little resources and funding they have, but they simply don’t have the resources to remove the trees fast enough and it seems to be their efforts are focused on detection, not removal,” she said. “It’s not a case of if this gets down to the south-west, but it’s a case of when and it will be an absolute agricultural nightmare.” Spencer-Teo said the pest was spreading at a “remarkable rate” as people transferred cuttings and soil to the south-west and the Hills, which were not currently in the quarantine zone. DPIRD confirmed the biggest threat to the spread of the pest was people transporting contaminated material outside of the quarantine area that covers 25 metropolitan councils. It said it was working closely with nurseries and growers, including Bunnings which had traps in some stores to monitor for borers. To date, no detections of the borer have been made in nursery stock. Mayor’s say the state government’s $3 million honey pot for 30 metropolitan councils to dip into to boost their tree canopy would not fund those lost due to shot-hole borer. Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said 1.8 million trees have been inspected on more than 60,000 properties. In response to claims the government hadn’t acted swiftly enough and local governments were carrying the financial burden of the biosecurity issue, Jarvis said she understood that local governments were nervous. “But I will make the point we’re in the middle of an emergency. We don’t yet know how many trees will have to be removed. “It’s a bit like talking about what it’s going to cost to rebuild your house while bushfire is still raging.” Jarvis said the $44m eradication fund would not replace lost trees. WALGA launched a campaign calling for a fighting fund to help councils pay for the removal and replacement of infected trees. A tree canopy symposium will be held on August 2 at the South Perth Bowling Club. Environmental lawyer Bronwyn Waugh said little appeared to have been done other than imposing quarantine restrictions and removing trees. “This clearly is not working. We must put funds into studying this disease.”