A new Smart Weed Alert Tool (SWAT) will help New Zealanders stay one step ahead of weeds.

“Detecting new weed invasions early gives us the best chance of eradication and helps prevent long-term, costly weed problems and lasting damage to native biodiversity and the places New Zealanders love,” says Department of Conservation Senior Science Advisor Kate McAlpine, who led the tool’s development.

Ms McAlpine says invasive weeds are one of New Zealand's most significant environmental challenges.

“Invasive weeds threaten native biodiversity, reduce agricultural and forestry productivity, degrade recreational and landscape values, interfere with hydroelectric infrastructure and waterways, and impose significant weed management costs on agencies, landowners and communities across the country.

“Right now, the country spends more than $1 billion per year on weed management, and that cost will grow as new weeds invade.”

Unlike traditional alert systems that focus on a single species or location, SWAT draws on biodiversity data on multiple weeds from multiple sources, including observations shared through iNaturalist NZ, to provide an early warning system for emerging weed threats.

“Thousands of plant observations are recorded every day, but no- one has the time to manually search through them all for signs of emerging weed threats. SWAT does that automatically, alerting people when something important turns up.”

Users can create customised alerts tailored to their interests and responsibilities, and are automatically notified when SWAT detects a new weed record matching the user’s criteria.

SWAT can be used by conservation groups, iwi, councils, land managers, researchers and members of the public to stay informed about potential weed threats in the places they care about.

SWAT is free and available on the Department of Conservation website.

New Zealanders can help to grow the biodiversity data that powers tools like SWAT by recording plants they see, through iNaturalist NZ: A Community for Naturalists.