NO MORE: “The pine cone and his ancestors have caused us a bit of trouble up here and we definitely don’t want or need any more,” Coast farmer Graeme Williams says. Picture supplied
Opposition to the impending sales to overseas forestry interests of iconic Huiarua and neighbouring Matanui stations inland from Tolaga and Tokomaru bays continues to build.
At last report the Federated Farmers-launched petition in opposition had started to climb towards 7000 signatures.
Some people have chosen to make written submissions to the Overseas Investment Office voicing their concern and opposition to the sales.
Among those people is well-known raconteur, poet, and Coast farmer Graeme Williams and with his permission Focus on the Land would like to present parts of his well-written and concise submission.
“I have lived and farmed all of my life at Mangaroa Station, Tokomaru Bay. Mangaroa is a 2000-acre steep hill country station situated 22km north of Tolaga Bay in the Hikuwai River catchment.
After cyclone Bola in March 1988, three of our five neighbours, all over 10,000 acres each, were planted into production forest. They were owned or managed by PF Olsen, Ernslaw or Hikurangi (now Aratu).
On Mangaroa my father and I planted over 58,000 poplar and willow trees for erosion control and the station is still a very profitable enterprise that has picked up four environmental awards over the years. I am not anti-pines or anti-carbon.
I only have one degree and that is in common sense and first-hand knowledge of the issues. Two of our neighbouring forestry enterprises used the road through our farm for their access and I have had a first-hand knowledge of myriad issues they face covering a broad spectrum through the relationships I have developed over the past 30 or so years with the forestry staff at all levels.
Despite these forests being well over an hour closer to the Gisborne port than Huiarua, I was often told by the forest managers that at particular times they were running at a daily loss due to log prices versus the extraction costs.
They continued working so when the price lifted the crews were already on site.
A vast majority of the crews travelled every day from Gisborne, 90kms away.
The combined 12 or so families from these stations left the community and district as the stations were planted. Over this period in both the Tauwhareparae area and the Ihungia area for the very same reason those two schools have closed.
Huiarua has the last remaining school.
I am the first to admit that some of the properties currently in trees (not all of them) should be in trees, but the remaining properties are the jewels in the crown of pastoral farming in both NZ and the world. If you intend to sign these properties over to foreigners to grow trees you need to be totally aware of the calibre of land you are sending to the gallows.
I have a very good understanding of the erosion issues and environmental implications of land use in the general East Coast area.
Blanket planting of pines on these soils in this area has created far more problems than the financial returns from the sale of the logs can ever display. Slash is a major issue and beaches are the least affected despite being the most visible.
It is the roads and bridges and general infrastructure which is incredibly expensive to reinstate after each weather event that bear the brunt of the slash issues.
I am no David Attenborough but I have enough knowledge to reliably state that the slash referred to is predominantly pine and in certain catchments entirely pine.
Every property that goes into trees makes it so much more difficult for those remaining as pastoral farms as the financial burden becomes more for fewer people. It is the very recipe to turn the light out.
The pastoral farms go, the families go.
The families go, the school closes.
The school goes, the families on the other farms go.
The infrastructure servicing the remaining farms becomes more expensive per capita, ie power reticulation and roading etc, and they disappear or become an additional expense on those who remain. Other people leave and the entire community is destroyed.
This happened in the area after cyclone Bola when the worst of the land was put into trees.
Now 90 percent of the remaining land is ‘iconic’ because it is the best land in terms of contour, fertility, tenureship and is being well farmed by some of the best farmers in the country getting some of the best returns in the country.
This land is the jewels in the crown. Huiarua and Matanui are two of the diamonds in that crown.
The recent adverse weather has highlighted two things if nothing else. Firstly the vulnerability of places like the East Coast because of the soil type and blanket planting of trees, and secondly how important communities are to maintaining the overall welfare of the region.
It is imperative that regions like the East Coast retain what is left of the remaining diversity for the long-term benefit of the entire country.”