“They know the land better than anyone else because they’ve been doing this work for decades,” Waipara, Auckland City Council’s principal biosecurity adviser, said.
So, rather than being lab-bound scientists’ work was increasingly being directed at solutions for farmers that were practical, feasible and deliverable.
The Plant and Food senior scientist was now in the front line of two biosecurity battles as an adviser on both kauri dieback and myrtle rust.
But he remained optimistic methods would be found to reduce the threat they posed.
“Humans cause problems but they also solve them,” he said.
“Science has a really pivotal role and it’s now stepping up to ensure the future of the country.”
He was interested in science from a young age and though brought up in Kaiapoi, just outside Christchurch, he had a strong connection with agriculture through his grandfather, Patrick Barrer.
“He was a Ministry of Agriculture farm adviser and travelled all over Canterbury and Banks Penninsula,” he said.
“He made great friends in the rural community and his books on weeds and soils got me involved.”
Waipara studied at Canterbury University, completing his doctorate while working for AgResearch at Ruakura in Hamilton.
“I was looking at the health and sustainability of clover, what suppresses its growth and what makes it less viable,” he said.
He then worked on biocontrol of pasture weeds such as Californian thistle.
“As farmers’ costs went up they needed cheaper and more effective ways of getting rid of them,” he said.
“We were able to harness nature to fight nature.
“Biocontrol is like the tortoise and the hare – sometimes the impact is slower but there’s a better result in the long term.”
In 2002 he shifted his focus to work Landcare Research was doing on controlling environmental weeds in bush farmers had put in QE II covenants. He was also involved in looking at the causes and impact of mycotoxins on silage.
In 2008 he became Auckland Council’s principal adviser on biosecurity, a portfolio that covered weeds and pests – anything that caused a problem for the natural estate.
That included rabbits on Great Barrier Island, where numbers were higher per hectare than in the McKenzie Country and management of possums to the fight against kauri dieback and myrtle rust.
“I always had an interest in plant pathogens and that’s given me the skills to go into the natural estate,” he said.
“Kauri dieback is a Phytophthora and these diseases can take out anything from crop plants through to big trees.”
But the good news was that he estimated more than half of kauri in the country might be growing on private land, where often they were treasured by farmers who fenced them off, stopping animals such as wild pigs spreading the disease.
“There’s also more opportunity for them to protect the trees because farmers can stop people coming on their properties,” he said.
Phosphite injections, a strategy developed by Plant and Food as a cheap and effective tool to stop trees from dying, could also be used.
When it came to myrtle rust, which had recently been confirmed in several regions of the North Island, Waipara could also put previous experience to good use, having studied fungal rusts on Californian thistle as well as blackberry rust.
“Myrtle rust could also spread to the South Island,” he said.
“But some clever modelling work has been done looking at where there are susceptible myrtle hosts and the right temperature and humidity.”
He was also a science adviser to the Biological Heritage Science Challenge, which he saw as a great way of getting the broadest input into solving issues, particularly through the effective use of social science.
One good example of the innovation that could be harnessed was a new app that let citizen scientists check and report symptoms of myrtle rust online.
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