Back in July, our biosecurity officers attended the National Education Training Seminar (NETS) hosted by the New Zealand Biosecurity Institute. This year, Southland put on some unexpectedly pleasant winter weather for the conference delegates in Invercargill, along with some great cheese rolls.

Maintaining the gains was the theme for the 2024 NETS conference – a phrase we’re all familiar with where hefty aspirations meet some very real challenges.

There were some great presentations on:

• barriers and opportunities
• from modelling success relative to project funding and inputs
• tech development and applications for drone use
• alert tools for helping detect incursions
• and working collaboratively with communities on site-led projects.

Some local sites were then showcased during field trips on the second day, venturing out to Koreti/New River Estuary and Kew Bush.

Koreti/New River Estuary