Northland project will turn cyclone-downed trees into firewood for needy families

Verran Hita chainsawing a tree brought down by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Te Roroa

Hundreds of thousands of trees downed by Cyclone Gabrielle trees are in for the chop in a unique $6.5 million resilience project aimed at slashing the chances of Northland enduring severe weather power and phone failures.

The project will also provide firewood for in-need families.

February’s cyclone left 64,000 Northlanders without power and there were widespread phone failures.

Northland Civil Defence Group recovery manager Mark Trudinger said the region’s roads bore the biggest overall impacts. Downed trees were such a significant issue that they were ranked No 2 on the list of priorities for future post-cyclone resilience.

Trees falling onto power lines, rather than network outages, had been revealed as the major cause of power loss in more than 90 per cent of power failures. Power loss also resulted in Northland’s biggest regional phone network failure. Widespread impacts included food storage, cooking and heating.

Other regions hit by Gabrielle did not suffer as big an impact from fallen trees, Trudinger said.

The collaborative Ngā Manga Atawhai (caring branches) project, run by Northland west coast iwi Te Roroa, will be officially launched at a pōwhiri on September 8 at Te Whakamaharatanga Marae in Waimamaku, on Northland’s remote west coast.

A key feature of the $6.5m project is that recovered trees will be turned into firewood for eligible in-need families. The wood will be dropped off at local community depots, including marae, and distributed from there.

Trudinger said Ngā Manga Atawhai would therefore go some way to reducing energy poverty.

“We found as a result of the cyclone that many Northlanders have wood burners, but they don’t have firewood.”

A portion of the firewood will be sold to cover costs and go towards making the mahi a long-term permanent kaupapa.

The project to combine tree-clearing with helping needy families is thought to be unique among the regions hit by Gabrielle. It has grown out of Te Roroa’s earlier Enhanced Taskforce Green clean-up of more than 1000 cyclone-hit trees from West Auckland’s Swanson to Houhora in the Far North over the last six months.

A funding application towards Ngā Manga Atawhai’s full $6.5m two-year set-up and running cost is currently before the Cabinet. It includes possible funding for a Far North-based equivalent. It has attracted $1m in funding to date.

Trudinger said Ngā Manga Atawhai would also see training for rangatahi and jobless forestry kaimahi (workers).

It was also expected to reduce flood risks by removing cyclone-damaged trees from rivers and improving the consistency of the soil and its ability to retain water by spreading chipped nutrient-rich treetops across paddocks.

Te Roroa will lead on-the-ground delivery of the resilience project, out of its Waipoua headquarters.

Te Roroa commercial operations manager and project lead Lindsay-Jon (L-J) Clark said many of the Gabrielle issues in Northland stemmed from fallen trees, which still remained under existing powerlines or next to roads and rivers. There were also thousands of standing trees still at risk of falling over roads, rivers and powerlines.

Clark said Ngā Manga Atawhai increased Northland’s resilience while ensuring harvested wood did not go to waste. It aimed to build Northland’s capacity to better withstand and recover from major weather events in future.

The pending Ngā Manga Atawhai crew on Turiwiri Kaipara farmer Kerry Perrea’s property. Pictured from left: Devante Tane-Hohaia, Haze Joseph Brown, Shannon Korau (supervisor), Ernest Manuel, farmer Kerry Perreau, Verran Hita, Santana Te Rore and Lance Dean (supervisor). Photo / Te Roroa

Ngā Manga Atawhai’s mahi will start almost immediately after the September 8 pōwhiri launch.

Clark said a dozen-strong team would be doing the tree clearance and timber harvesting. This was expected to be done on private farmland as well as around affected marae.

Much of the initial work will be processing trees already removed by Northland Regional Council (NRC) from 70 locations across 25 rivers.

The project pulls together groups from Northland councils, the Government, iwi and the private sector. Those involved include Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, Te Roroa Commercial Development, NRC, Kaipara District Council, Far North District Council and Whangārei District Council, Te Kahu O Taonui (Northland Iwi Chairs Forum), Northpower, Top Energy, Waka Kotahi NZTA, Northland Transportation Alliance, Rural Support Trust, Manawa Ora Healthy Homes Initiative (Te Whatu Ora), Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for Primary Industries plus Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment.

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