Wood council proposes detailed risk assessment of land across region

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Eastland Wood Council has called for the identification of land to be retired from forestry in its submission to the ministerial inquiry on land use in relation to forestry slash issues in the region.

The submission outlines mitigations EWC member forestry companies will be implementing in the short term.

Longer term, the wood council has called for a detailed risk assessment process to be undertaken to identify land that should be converted from its current use or retired altogether.

“There is no silver bullet that will immediately solve the issue of slash and sediment in Tairāwhiti,” EWC -  Te Kaunihera Pororākau o Te Tairāwhiti chief executive Philip Hope says.

“However, we recognise that forestry has lost its social licence to operate and we are committed to fixing this and being part of the solution.”

EWC’s submission features a range of options it says need to be considered as part of a proposed detailed risk assessment of land across the region, as well as measures to be taken to support a transition in land use in the highest-risk areas.

“It is clear that in some places we need to change what we do with our land, particularly the highest risk hillsides with skeletal soils that are most at risk of failure,” Mr Hope said.

“Cyclone Gabrielle caused damage to plantations and associated landscapes at levels not previously seen inside forestry gates, and the extent of debris movement from the collapse of younger-aged trees during recent storms is unprecedented.

“While the extremely vulnerable soils are widely acknowledged as a challenge unique to our region, the increasingly severe storms we are experiencing are not, and yet they are becoming more common.

“It is time to take another look and reassess how we use some of our land,” he said.

The scientific risk assessment proposed by EWC would consider, on a catchment-by-catchment basis, the inherent risk of the land and identify those slopes where failure cannot be mitigated.

Risks proposed for consideration include skeletal soils, areas impossible to harvest without the adequate management of debris and slash, areas that would never be harvested for safety or access reasons, areas where soil strength would fail under a heavy crop, and areas with a high susceptibility of land-sliding and connection to bodies of water.

“EWC recommends that those areas identified as at risk should be mapped and resilience-building, or alternative uses, identified.

“Some options proposed include retirement and managed transition to indigenous vegetation; transition to alternative non-production species; conversion to natural capital regimes, including biodiversity and carbon; relocation of dwellings or infrastructure; and development of engineered and vegetative mitigation measures (like wetland development, living slash fences, engineered debris nets).

Mr Hope said while the forest industry could provide some mitigation measures, at the same time it would be necessary to look at what was allowed to happen downstream as well.

“That includes identifying the infrastructure that is vulnerable and redesigning that, not building on high-risk flood plains and overland flow paths, and developing community-based responses to support the transition in land use, including new employment opportunities and fair compensation for landowners,” he said.

“Managed retreat is a subject that has been widely discussed in the wake of New Zealand’s most recent storms.

“Given the increasing severity of storms and our changing climate, we need a plan for managed retreat from some of the most vulnerable land, including that which is currently in production forestry.

“However, we are clear that forestry still has an important role to play in Tairāwhiti, bringing economic, social and environmental benefits to our whānau and communities.

“In many cases, the majority of plantation forests in our region were established by the government or under government-funded schemes in response to past significant land erosion and slope failures,” Mr Hope said.

“The forests were established for soil and land conservation purposes, as well as to bring long-term economic wellbeing and, in many cases, this has been achieved.

“In the face of increasingly severe weather, it is now clear that we cannot continue as we have been and we need to take another look at what is happening on the most vulnerable land.”

For any land conversion to be successful it would need to be reinforced by mechanisms to support a sustainable transition to alternative land use, and long-term plans to manage the retired land, he said.

“This will not be a short-term fix but the Eastland Wood Council is committed to collaborating with central and local government, iwi, Gisborne District Council, mana whenua, Trust Tairāwhiti and other stakeholders to help establish reasonable expectations for the ongoing management of these highly erodible and unstable lands, especially as plantation forestry will continue to be a land-use option for Tairāwhiti in the medium and long term.”