Christchurch agritech base in hi-tech fight versus wilding pines.
It’s the number one invasive pest you didn’t know about and the Canterbury business battling it with drones and super smart technology.
The South Island’s world-class scenery is world-renowned but is threatened by an innocent-looking, destructively invasive threat – wilding pines.
They have now claimed the dubious honour of New Zealand’s number one pest plant, with more than a quarter of our landmass at risk of being smothered.
Not to be confused with the humble pinus radiata under which Christmas presents lie every December, the ‘wilding pines’ umbrella term covers several species of conifer, fir, larch and pine trees whose air-born seeds travel kilometres downwind with ease.
Faster growing than native trees, they establish dense forests in difficult-to-reach areas, putting native ecosystems, productive farmland and iconic landscapes at risk, not to mention presenting a significant wildfire risk.
That’s a big deal when you’re talking about the South Island and its beauty - from the impossibly blue waters of Lake Pukaki to the enchantment of the setting sun on Fox Glacier; the golden sands of Tasman to the sheer size and semblance of walking back in time in Milford Sound.
Naturally, wilding pines are tough to control, with traditional methods such as hand weeding, cutting, ring barking and aerial spraying, fighting an uphill battle. However, cutting-edge technology to assist with tackling the issue is well into the development phase, thanks to a Christchurch-based tech company, SPS Automation.
The company’s founders, John and William Rolleston, bio and agritech entrepreneurs from Timaru, became concerned at the risk wilding pines presented after seeing first-hand the damage they were causing to the beautiful South Island countryside. They asked Scott Spooner, an expert in drones, to join them in tackling the problem.
They chose Christchurch as the base camp for the battle against the wildings because of the ease of doing business there in the strong agritech sector and its rich pipeline of talent from the University of Canterbury.
“The more we learned about the wilding problem, the more concerned we became,” Spooner says. “In the wrong place they destroy everything – killing the native grasses, plants and taking over farmland. Uncontrolled, they can cause the entire ecosystem to run off the rails.
“We thought, if we don’t solve this problem soon, the whole of the South Island is going to be covered in these plants. So, we set about designing a tool to control them.”
Spooner, a University of Canterbury-trained mechatronics engineer who specialises in unmanned aerial vehicles, put together a development roadmap based around identifying, sizing-up, and spraying individual pine saplings and trees, using swarming drones. It was the perfect foil for difficult-to-reach areas, while also presenting an environmentally-friendly solution.
“It’s a precise, controlled application. It’s all targeted. So, unlike bulk aerial spraying, there’s little-to-no overspray - every droplet is measured, accounted for, and applied to the individual plant. By using drones, we can reach pines in terrain too dangerous for ground crews – which is a huge advantage in terms of health and safety.”
“We also target sparsely-infected areas – places where there aren’t many trees, or they’re very spread out, where it isn’t financially viable for helicopter application and where it would take ground crews a long time to cover.”
“Our system is designed to work alongside traditional methods; the drones are another tool contractors can utilise in the fight against wildings. To win the battle, they need every resource they can get.
“There is an opportunity to roll the solution out overseas, assisting with the control of many species of invasive plants, but our focus is on helping New Zealand first.”
Spooner credits the team he’s built up at SPS Automation and close proximity to the heart of the issue as being instrumental in their success.
“The South Island is obviously the most impacted by the wilding problem but, as a technology development company, we also need to be situated where we can access the right resources to develop the tools we need.
That means basing the business in Christchurch, a key site for innovative businesses in the food, fibre and agritech sector. The recently developed Christchurch Food, Fibre and Agritech Ecosystem Map demonstrates the opportunity and presents partners who fuel the region’s sector – including funders, investors, research, networks and co-working spaces that can help grow businesses.
Spooner says: “Christchurch is very much the place to be for aerospace engineering, so it works well for us here - we have a great team.” He recruits a lot of staff out of the University of Canterbury, which now offers a mechatronics degree with aerospace engineering as a minor.
“We’ve been able to grow as quickly as we have because we’re so close to Canterbury University. We run final-year engineering projects through them as well as taking on summer interns as part of their engineering degree requirements. There’s a really strong talent pipeline coming straight from the university.”
Spooner said new graduates also stood out for innovative thinking, important as the technology being developed is so new. “We are breaking ground on novel concepts and technology, and fresh eager minds help with that.”
However, it’s one thing to attract top talent and another to keep them: “Being central has been hugely beneficial. There’s a lot of great companies located here, fabulous food just down the road and the vibe in the central city is just incredible – it’s a great draw for young people.”
“Post-earthquake, it’s not often that a major city gets an opportunity to design the infrastructure, the businesses and what’s going into that city. So, the way I see it, they’ve taken a lot of aspects from really popular cities around the world and incorporated it all into Christchurch – and it’s such an awesome thriving place.
“Christchurch is my favourite city to be in New Zealand.”
View the Christchurch Food, Fibre and Agritech Ecosystem Map here.