Global Forest Announces Scientific Discovery
22 January 2004
Half a world away, Canadian and U.S. researchers have announced a scientific breakthrough that will help save the forests of New Zealand from a marauding predator pest which threatened the country's huge agricultural and forestry industries.
Global Forest Science, an international biological research institute based in San Francisco, California, and Banff, Canada, announced today that a research team has unlocked the puzzle to the painted apple moth sex pheromone communication system, potentially discovering a biological and environmentally-friendly means of eradicating this dangerous exotic pest. Pheromones are scents moths emit and respond to.
Global Forest President and Founder Dr. Reese Halter said the New Zealand discovery demonstrates that Global Forest and the International Insect Quarantine Facility his Foundation provided at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, is progressing toward its worldwide goal of preventing the spread of foreign insects.
"Global Forest assembled the international, multi-disciplinary team to combat the New Zealand invasion, and after two years of hard work, we've got another huge scientific win," Halter said. "It's mission accomplished. We're thrilled with the scientific excellence of this team and their ingenuity and alacrity in solving this mystery."
The painted apple moth is an Australian species with a voracious appetite for many Zealand plants and trees including Acadia, Eucalyptus and pine. In April, 1999, a resident of Auckland, New Zealand took a suspicious-looking insect to a local entomologist and soon after, New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed a widespread infestation of the exotic moth. The moth invasion brought with it the potential of delivering a body-blow to New Zealand's massive agricultural and forestry industry.
Global Forest Science sprung into action. It assembled an international scientific team that had earlier been credited for identifying the pheromone of the exotic Asian white spotted tussock moth in New Zealand, a major defoliator of plants and trees, from escaping Auckland's (NZ) periphery in 1998. The team included: Dr. John Clearwater, of Auckland, Dr. Paul W. Schaefer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Laboratory and Members of the Gries Laboratory at Simon Fraser University, including Professor Gerhard Gries.
Propelled with funding from Global Forest Science, the team set to work in 2001 attempting to identify more than 13 candidate pheromone components of the painted apple moth, some of which had never been reported before. In December, 2003 the breakthrough came in Campbelltown, Australia, as Clearwater and Schaefer successfully demonstrated the capture of apple moth males in traps baited with synthetic pheromone. The pheromone can now be used as a trap bait to monitor eradication of the painted apple moths in New Zealand.
Demonstrating that even scientists get excited at momentous discoveries, Clearwater screamed so loud when the moths responded to the pheromone at the Australian test that colleagues came rushing to his aid, assuming he was under attack by a swarm of bees.
"This scientific breakthrough in New Zealand exemplifies the potent results that flow from a team of global experts working with Global Forest to confront and solve a huge environmental and economic threat," Halter said.
Halter has overseen Global Forest's involvement in more than 60 projects in 9 countries, mobilizing hundreds of scientists from international universities, research institutes and private scientific organizations. His passion for the practice and science of forestry has taken him to Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, United States and Canada. Halter is fascinated with subalpine and alpine fauna and flora and spends significant time in these ecosystems, recently returning from touring the bark beetle infested forests of New Mexico. He believes children must have hands-on experience in science and has established a climate change tracking program which provides weather stations to middle schools in Australia, Canada, England, Israel and the United States.
Tuscon and Banff-based Global Forest Science ( www.globalforestscience.org) is a forest biology research institute. With an international multi-disciplinary team of 165 scientists, Global Forest Science is a world leader in forest science research and has often been likened to the Red Adair's of the forest biology world. Global Forest Sciences' many victories ranging from legislation to protect the threatened westslope cutthroat trout of British Columbia, protection of the world's largest ant colony, opening an international insect quarantine facility and helping to save New Zealand's multi billion dollar forestry and agriculture industries from the Australian painted apple moth. Global Forest Science is also dedicated to children's ecological education - visit GFAwesome. ( www.gfawesome.org)
For more information, please contact:
Email: info@globalforestscience.org
Phone: 818.851.9682
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