New Zealand Journal of Forestry (2015) 59(4): 43
©New Zealand Institute of Forestry

Letter to the Editor
Forest health

Colin Bassett <sup>1

1</sup> Head of FRI’s Pathology and Entomology Branch from 1967 to 1972 and FRI’s Director of Research from 1972 to 1989.

Pleased to see the theme of biosecurity and forest health in the August 2014 issue of the journal – a timely reminder that our industry is constantly under threat through the steady accumulation of alien pest species. The underlying message is that these incursions will continue. I do have a few comments: on the paper about Phytophthora diseases, and on the one about the history of forest health research. Phytophthora diseases Just for completeness of the record, both European and Japanese larch have also been attacked by P. cinnamomi in the past. In FRI’s 1959 annual report I recorded that the so-called resinosis of larch was first discovered at Golden Downs in 1935; many three-yearold trees, exuding resin from roots and lower stems, had wilted and died. From 1935 to 1937 over 4,000 trees in young plantations were pulled up and burnt. Tom Birch looked at it and tentatively concluded this was a ‘physiological disease’.
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