Announcements

Latest publications from New Zealand Plant Protection

Hackell, D. L., McAlpine, K., & James, T. (2026). Seedbank longevity of kiwifruit, Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa. New Zealand Plant Protection, 79, 49-52. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2026.79.11806

Clare, G., & Husheer, S. (2026). A method for rearing Fuller’s rose weevil, Naupactus cervinus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on an artificial diet. New Zealand Plant Protection, 79, 40-48. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2026.79.11796

Buddenhagen, C. E., Gunnarsson, M., Hackell, D. L., Lawrie, I., Ngow, Z., Mills, A., & Ryder, T. (2026). Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS)-inhibitor herbicide resistance detected in recent Alopecurus myosuroides (black-grass) incursions into New Zealand. New Zealand Plant Protection, 79, 33-39. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2026.79.11801

O’Callaghan, M., & Mansfield, S. (2026). Evaluating the field efficacy of microbial products – important technical matters to consider. New Zealand Plant Protection, 79, 17-32. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2026.79.11798

McAlpine, K. G., Wotton, D. M., Hackell, D., & James, T. (2026). Growth responses and phenotypic plasticity of eight environmental weed species grown from seed in deep shade. New Zealand Plant Protection, 79, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2026.79.11799

Müller, K., Rosenbom, A. E., Northcott, G., Sharp, E. L., Banasiak, L., Bromfield, K., Gaw, S., Shaw, B., Taylor, M., & Kah, M. (2025). Multi-party assessment of pesticide risks in Aotearoa New Zealand: Current challenges and potential steps forward. New Zealand Plant Protection, 78, 32-42. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2025.78.11791

Millar, A.O., Spencer, A., Harper, G., & Shadbolt, A.B. (2025). Investigating herbicide tolerances of native plants to improve urban restoration. New Zealand Plant Protection, 78, 23-31. https://journal.nzpps.org/index.php/nzpp/article/view/11793

Teulon, D.A. and Greer, G. 2025. Defending Aotearoa New Zealand’s plant systems from invasive species – value, impact, investment and benefit. New Zealand Plant Protection. 78, (Oct. 2025), 10–22. https://doi.org/10.30843/nzpp.2025.78.11792

Read more here
by

Society News

by

NZPPS member Dame Alison Stewart has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand for “a lifetime commitment to the control of plant diseases using beneficial fungus Trichoderma”.

The New Zealand Plant Protection Society (NZPPS) is co-hosting the 24th Australasian Weeds Conference (AWC), to be held in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, from 23–27 August 2026.

The 2025 NZ Plant Protection Medal was awarded to AgResearch Emeritus scientist Stephen Goldson at the Society’s conference in August.

NZPPS member Emeritus Distinguished Professor Alison Stewart CNZM has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2025 King’s birthday honours for services to plant science and the arable sector.

Sarah van Amsterdam, a PhD student at Auckland University and AgResearch Ltd (Left) and Friederike Espinoza, a PhD student at Lincoln University (Right) have been awarded the 2024 NZPPS Research Scholarship and the 2024 Dan Watkins Scholarship in Weed Science funded by a George Mason Endowment Gift respectively.

Ian Harvey of PLANTwise was awarded the 2024 NZPP Medal at the Society’s conference last month.——

Sadly, NZPPS benefactor George Mason has died. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/527984/noted-taranaki-philanthropist-george-mason-dies——

The NZPPS has joined the the Save Science Coalition, which is being organised by the New Zealand Association of Scientists. Read their July 2024 report about Science under Threat——

2022 NZPP Medal co-recipient Dr Brian Richardson has been awarded the 2024 Minister’s Biosecurity Award. Read more at: https://www.thisisus.nz/news-events/biosecurity-awards/winners-and-finalists/2024-winners-and-finalists/——

The deadline for abstracts for the 23rd Australasian Weeds Conference is has been extended to 7 March 2024.

NZPPS Corporate member, the Environmental Protection Authority, has opened a preliminary consultation on selected synthetic pyrethroids (SPs) used in Aotearoa New Zealand. Visit the consultation web page https://www.epa.govt.nz/public-consultations/open-consultations/synthetic-pyrethroids-reassessment/ for more information. The consultation closes at 5:00pm on Thursday 29 February 2024.

Josh van der Weyden from Plant & Food Research received the Emerging Speaker Award at the 2023 NZPPS conference.

2020 Scholarship winners

by

There was considerable competition for the 2020 scholarships with nine applications received for the NZPPS Research Scholarship, five for the Dan Watkins Scholarship in Weed Science and six for the Phytophthora Scholarship (a one-off award from the profit of the Phytophthora Symposium held at Stanford Plaza in August 2019). Applications were of a high standard. Congratulations to the following winners:

NZPPS Research Scholarship: Danielle Kok who is a PhD student at Massey University. The title of Danielle’s research project is “ABAtE: Active Bacteriophages for AFB Eradication”. This scholarship is $3,500.

The Dan Watkins Scholarship in Weed Science: Jesse Rubenstein who is a PhD student at Lincoln University. Jesse’s research project is “Assessing the risk of weed seed contamination within New Zealand’s seed for sowing industry”. This scholarship is $5,000.

2020 NZPPS Phytophthora Scholarship: Sarah Killick who is PhD student at Auckland University. The title of Sarah’s research project is “The physiological effects of Phytophthora agathidicida infection in kauri” The scholarship is $5,000.

More details about our scholarship winners and their projects will be included in the March 2021 newsletter.

A previous winner, Matt Denton-Giles, writes about the benefits of winning a scholarship below.

What’s in a name? Part 2

by

Nine NZPPS members have had their contributions to entomology recognised by having new species of parasitoid wasp named after them. The species are all in a new genus of Microgastrinae that is endemic to New Zealand. The new species were named by Jose Fernández-Triana from the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Darren Ward (Auckland University & Landcare Research), and are: Notogaster avilai, N. charlesi, N. macdonaldae, N. martini, N. poultonae, N. sucklingi, N. toddae, N. walkeri, andN. withersae named after Gonzalo Avila, John Charles, Frances MacDonald, Nick Martin, Jo Poulton, Max Suckling, Jacqui Todd, Graham Walker and Toni Withers respectively.

Publication details: Zootaxa 4801(2): 251–279.

New article types for New Zealand Plant Protection

by

Recently, New Zealand Plant Protection introduced new article types. This change is in line with the separation of the journal from the Society’s conference that was formalised at the 2019 AGM. The purpose of additional article types is to encourage a broader range of submissions from across the diversity of plant protection practitioners in New Zealand. Having a variety of article types conforms to the style of most national and international science journals and will hopefully stimulate more interest in the journal. In addition to the standard Research Articles (original research in the traditional format, no word limit) and Literature Reviews (comprehensive review of published literature plus an analysis of findings and summary of knowledge gaps), the Journal will now consider:

Research Notes: New science, succinctly presented (<2500 words), e.g. preliminary findings, small experiments, improved methodologies.

Applied Practices papers: Comparisons of methods or technologies applied to pest management, biosecurity surveillance, or pest eradication, and

Perspectives: Qualitative and balanced overview of a topic in <3000 words supported by published literature.

Go to the Journal’s website for further information on the scope and requirements for each article type. To assist authors, article templates are also available for each article type and can be downloaded from the website.

Traditionally, the Society’s conference is proceeded by a symposium on a specialised topic. This often resulted in a published symposium proceedings. It’s my hope, that in the future, symposium organisers will take on the role of guest editors, and produce special issues of the journal. Special issues are not limited to the Society’s symposia. In fact, a special issue is currently in progress, based on the 4th International Workshop on European canker, guest edited by Reiny Scheper and Monika Walter. If you are organising a conference or symposium on a plant protection related topic, and interested in producing a special of New Zealand Plant Protection, please contact the editor (Ruth Falshaw). The success of the journal depends on article submissions by the membership. As mentioned in previous communications, submissions can be made at any time. I hope that members of the Society will consider New Zealand Plant Protection as venue to publish their research.

Mike Cripps, President

From the President

by

The year 2020 is nearly gone, and I think most of us will be happy to bid it farewell. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the world hard in early 2020, and continues to affect the way we work and socialise today. The nationwide level-4 lockdown that came into effect on 25 March also coincided with the date of the first NZPPS Executive Committee meeting of the year. Only a couple weeks prior to the meeting the Committee was discussing travel arrangements. How quickly things changed! It was clear that 2020 was not going to be an ordinary year. The Executive had to decide whether or not to proceed with planning the August conference. At the time, it was hard to know what to do. After all, the August conference was still more than four months away. After some debate, the Committee thought it best to postpone the conference until the following year. This decision proved to be the right one.

With many parts of the world currently dealing with second or third waves of the virus, it is clear that New Zealand has handled the Covid-19 crisis better than most countries, and like me, I’m sure that most of you are happy and proud of the collective response in New Zealand that quashed the virus. Undoubtedly, there are many learnings from the challenges of 2020, both personal and professional, and possibly even for plant protection research in New Zealand. Those of us in the biosecurity sphere have always known that “going hard, and going early” is the only way to deal with incursion threats to our primary production sectors. However, knowing what to do is only the first step – getting the community, or indeed the entire country, behind the initiative is the key to success. It wasn’t government edicts per se that saved the day against Covid-19 in New Zealand, but rather the collective response of the team of 5 million. Certainly, a lesson from New Zealand’s success against Covid-19 is that effective communication is key to achieving public support. New Zealand has received international praise for its response to Covid-19, and rightly so. But New Zealand also has many great plant protection stories that need to be told. One such story is the pea weevil eradication from the Wairarapa, reported on in the June 2020 newsletter. This is an excellent example of a government programme that was effective because of community support, achieved through good communication about the actions that were needed.

While unfortunately overshadowed by the pandemic, the year 2020 was also declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). The goal of this initiative was to raise awareness about the importance of plant protection for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals to help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development. As members of the New Zealand Plant Protection Society, we understand that these are desired outcomes of plant protection research and extension activities. We also need to help other people understand this. The IYPH serves to remind us all that plants are essential for life, and everyone has a role in protecting them.

The presidential reins were passed to me during the 2020 AGM held at Lincoln University. The AGM was online with some local Lincoln members attending in person. It ended with a quiet afternoon tea, before going back to work. I couldn’t help thinking that typically the handover of the presidency role happens at the annual conference dinner, with wine, food, and music. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t meet for a conference this year, but I look forward to seeing you all at the 73rd Conference of the New Zealand Plant Protection Society in Napier from 10-12 August 2021.

On behalf of the Executive, I wish the members of the Society a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Mike Cripps

2020 NZPPS Annual General Meeting

by

The 2020 NZPPS Annual General Meeting was held on 2 September at Lincoln University and simultaneously via Zoom. Fourteen members attended in person and a further 17 members participated online. This was the first time that the Society has held an AGM in such a format and it worked well. Online attendees typed their comments online and these were read out by the President. The President, Treasurer, Editor and Web-Editor each presented a report.

All these reports are available online at: https://nzpps.org/events/annual-general-meeting-2020/  The meeting lasted 1 hour and was followed by afternoon tea for attendees at Lincoln.

The following members stood for election as Officers of the Society and all were returned unopposed:

President:         Mike Cripps
Vice President: Hayley Ridgway
Treasurer:         Jason Smith
Editor:               Ruth Falshaw
Secretary:         Jenny Taylor
Committee:       Rebecca Fisher; Joy Tyson; Dale Neill; Claire Mills; Vanessa Cotterill; and Soonie Chng

Eirian Jones is the Immediate Past President.

Gareth Hill has been co-opted onto the Committee as the Web Editor and the Treasurer recommended that the current auditors Owen McLeod & Co. be used again in 2021.

The Executive Committee extends a warm welcome to new members Rebecca Fisher and Soonie Chng and is pleased to retain the expertise of existing members.

Rebecca has been a member of the NZPPS since 2006 and has been an active member of the Society – contributing to forums and presenting at conference. Rebecca is the Crop Protection Manager at Market Access Solutionz, based in Wellington.  Her expertise lies in the area of crop protection regulation.  Rebecca works with grower groups on crop protection strategy development, registration of new products and EPA reassessments. Rebecca is also the Executive Manager for NZ Citrus Growers and serves as a Director on the board of AGCARM Inc. (Agricultural Compounds and Animal Remedy Manufacturers). Her strengths lie in engagement of a wide range of stakeholders across plant protection industries – from growers to government regulators and would bring a fresh and dynamic perspective to the committee. Rebecca has sound governance experience and an obvious passion for plant protection.

Soonie is a plant pathologist at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited. Soonie’s research expertise is in arable and vegetable pathology, with a primary focus on the management of both airborne and soil-borne diseases, such as cereal rusts and root rots. She works closely with the New Zealand arable and vegetable cropping industries and collaborates with international peers on management of major crop diseases. Soonie was a committee member for New Zealand Women in Science in 2018, hence she understand the responsibilities and the dynamic energy required as a NZPPS committee member and she is keen to contribute towards a society so relevant to her field of interest.

Are you passionate about social networking and science communication?

by

The New Zealand Plant Protection Society is seeking expressions of interest from a talented social media whizz who can increase the visibility and reach of the Society. Contact us at: secretary@nzpps.org by 31 October 2020 if you are interested in:

  • Preparing an annual communication strategy for key target audiences
  • Delivering this strategy through frequent and relevant communication activities via a range of channels that provide an effective online presence for the NZPPS
  • Using relevant metrics and surveys to increase the reach of the Society through social media networks

The Comms Manager will receive an honorarium from the Society as a token of its appreciation of the work they do.

Become part of our science communication team and explore the world of plant protection through social media.

NZPPS Benefactor Dr George Mason honoured

by

NZPPS benefactor Dr George Mason was presented with an ONZM by Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy this afternoon. George was awarded this prestigious honour for his services to conservation, philanthropy and the community. Over the last 25 years, George has donated more than $5 million to scholarships, educational funding and grants through the George Mason Charitable Trust. One of these grants is the annual Dan Watkins Scholarship in Weed Science, which is administered by the NZPPS. George established this scholarship in memory of Dan Watkins and to recognise Dan’s contribution to weed science within New Zealand. Dan was a leading figure in the early weed science research arena within New Zealand and was a co-founder of the New Zealand Weeds Conference (forerunner of the NZPPS). The aim of this Scholarship is to encourage research into the biology and control of weeds in New Zealand.

© 2026 New Zealand Plant Protection Society Inc.
Website by HortPlus