Cyclone Gabrielle: Political consensus builds for review into forestry slash

All five political parties are backing an urgent independent review into managing forestry slash as Tairāwhiti deals with yet another devastating storm turbocharged by climate change.

But major questions remain over exactly when it would occur and what issues it would cover, as while the environmental and social impacts are huge so too would be the effect of ending an industry which one in four households in the region depend on for employment.

Images of tonnes of woody debris, mixed in with silt and sediment, blanketed across landscapes and having destroyed critical infrastructure are now emerging from the isolated region that was entirely cut off during Cyclone Gabrielle.

The pictures of bridges and roads decimated and surrounded by slash mirror those in the aftermath of Cyclone Hale just a month ago, and several other storms in recent years that have caused tens of millions of dollars of damage and brought the community to breaking point.

Civil Defence co-ordinator Lillian Te Hau-Ward today said a bridge linking Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay had been washed out by forestry slash and water.

“Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of our whānau rely on forestry work for income, however, the practices of leaving slash on the sides of hills needs to change - those need to be cleaned up because they end up in our waterways,” she told RNZ.

Slash is essentially woody debris left behind by the forestry industry after harvest which can wash into and clog waterways during heavy rain. In large storms, it can accumulate and end up taking out bridges and other infrastructure, along with smothering the land and the coast.

Experts say this issue is likely to only increase with climate change and cyclones becoming more frequent and ferocious.

After Cyclone Hale in January, the community rallied behind an independent inquiry into land use in Tairāwhiti and for Gisborne District Council to prioritise a review of land-use rules for the erosion-prone land that comprises 80 per cent of the region.

The issue was further crystallised after a young boy was killed in Gisborne after being struck by a log while swimming at a local beach.

A bridge on State Highway 2 taken out by slash. Photo / NZDF

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government would look into forestry practices to prevent waste and debris from entering the waterways - a position “welcomed” by Minister of Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty.

“There’s no doubt that slash in some areas, is causing an unneeded addition to the weather event,” McAnulty said on Wednesday.

“There hasn’t been a weather event that included flooding that hasn’t had slash to some degree.”

Now all parties are backing an independent review, along with environmentalists and the forestry industry alike.

Forestry Minister Stuart Nash was in Napier today and unavailable for an interview, but has met with the Tairāwhiti community and said he would initiate an inquiry. His office said relevant ministers were still working through the parameters of what it would cover.

A bridge over Hikuwai River between Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay taken out during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Supplied

In a statement, Nash said Tairāwhiti faced particular challenges due to the highly erodible soil.

“This region has an inherently greater erosion risk than other regions in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“The use of trees (exotic and indigenous) to stabilise soil and manage erosion is proven to be the most appropriate approach.”

But he said he was committed to reviewing the current situation and regulations.

National Party forestry spokesman Joseph Mooney had visited Tairāwhiti after the last storm and said they supported an inquiry.

“It’s been a long-standing issue. There won’t be any simple answers, but we need to probably have a good review to figure out what we can do.”

Mooney said it was a tough balance given that about one in four households in the region were in some way connected to the industry.

It was also unique to the region, which had about a quarter of the country’s most severely eroding soil and had faced issues dating back to when the native forests were cleared for farming by European settlers.

The folly of farming steep and eroding land was realised by the 1960s and the government started planting it in trees in an attempt to save it from washing away. More intensive work continued after Cyclone Bola in 1988, and now some of those planted forests are even off-limits for harvesting.

Mooney said solutions for managing slash in those areas where harvesting continued included greater setbacks from waterways, buffers of permanent indigenous forest, and more-effective slash catchers.

Green Party spokeswoman Eugenie Sage said forestry was an important industry to the East Coast but could not continue the way it had.

“They are externalising the impacts of the industry onto the local environment and local people.”

The industry has said that it has changed practices since 2018 when heavy rain and flooding in Tolaga Bay left tonnes of forestry debris strewn across farms, resulting in multiple prosecutions.

But Sage said it was clear more needed to be done.

Along with a community-initiated review, Sage said the Government needed to tighten the current national environmental standards for plantation forestry.

She said a levy should be explored along with an end to clearing entire forests during harvest. Given the economic impacts of any changes, Sage said a “just transition” needed to be supported and smaller councils such as Gisborne District Council also needed more support to monitor the industry.

“They are a small council with a small rates base. They only have two compliance officers but thousands of hectares of forestry to monitor.

The Act Party and Te Pāti Māori have also told the Herald they would support an independent review.