WA scientists are
giving trees 'flu jabs'
to stave off extinction 
Image: Wikimedia
Commons

Scientists are injecting native trees in WA’s South-West with a potent mixture of nutrients and fungicide in a race to save dwindling populations from extinction.

The ‘booster shots’ are an 11th-hour bid to keep the trees alive while researchers at the new Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health (ECCWFH), based at Murdoch University, search for a solution to their deteriorating health.

"The situation is becoming so dire that you are pushed to find a healthy tree in many parts of the South-West and Wheatbelt," says centre director Professor Giles Hardy.

Native trees began to mysteriously decline en masse in the early 1990s, with researchers suggesting a combination of drought, salinity, erosion and changes in soil microbiology, as well as a newly-identified type of Phytophthora plant pathogen found to be infecting many native trees.

"If you go out to places like Lake Clifton, every single tree is dead."

Sick tuarts found only in WA, no longer produce fruit and seeds and could die out within a generation.

Professor Hardy says marri, wandoo, flooded gum, jarrah and peppermint are also on the endangered list.

"We are getting very worried about marri. A lot of people are starting to contact us about dying marri, and when people start to notice, you know the problem is serious.

"WA peppermint trees are also starting to die, even in urban areas, and they are a very important habitat of the ringtail possum."

Hundreds of trees in Yanchep and Yalgorup National Park, 130km south of Perth, are trialing the injections, which is seeing them sprout new leaves and fresh growth within six months.

"It’s like giving a human a flu jab," says Professor Hardy.

"This is giving us some hope that the trees can be kept alive while we continue to do research."

The ECCWFH is pursuing both national and international collaborations in its research and the trial could be expanded to encompass thousands more trees.

The cocktail of supplements injected contains trace elements including zinc, manganese and iron, as well as liquid phosphite, a biodegradable fungicide which boosts the trees’ immune response.