Slash and forestry debris scattered around East Cape/Tairwahiti following tropical Cyclone Hale. Photo / Eastland Wood Council
The $6 billion forestry export industry is facing a community revolt in its East Coast Te Tairawhiti growing patch as anger builds over yet another massive smashing of beaches, waterways, farms and homes by forestry debris in a storm.
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz says she and the district council support a call from the Environmental Defence Society for a commission of inquiry into forestry practices in the region, while in other reaction, by mid-week more than 800 people had signed a residents’ petition calling on local government and the Beehive to act on what is being called an “ecological disaster”.
“We are sick of seeing the carnage created by forestry slash (waste debris) in our awa and along the coast…after years of expensive litigation, it seems Gisborne District Council is still unable to set rules that protect the environment and it is impacting on our ability to live in our own lands,” said a spokesperson for petition organising group Mana Taiao Tairawhiti.
The group, which includes farmers, horticulturalists, Maori landowners and conservation workers, aims to get more than 1000 signatures to present to the district council at its Sustainable Tairawhiti meeting on January 26.
The latest deluge of forestry slash and silt came with flooding during ex-tropical Cyclone Hale on January 10, which plunged the region into a state of emergency.
Stoltz said since a severe storm in 2018, which resulted in damage running into millions of dollars and 10 council prosecutions of forestry companies for breaches of their resource consents, the region has been hit by two Civil Defence weather emergencies in 2021 and three last year.
Among East Coast farmers there’s “a growing and real sense of anger that this keeps happening”, says farmer Toby Williams, chair of Federated Farmers meat and wool council, whose farm at Whangara, halfway between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay was affected, but not as badly, he says, as those on river flats to the north.
Williams believes around 200 farms were affected by the latest storm. A Federated Farmers-funded study of the impact of the previous recent weather events assessed the cost to farms at $11m.
Stoltz says she supports calls for an independent inquiry “because what we are currently doing is not sustainable”.
“It [forestry] is a huge industry in the Tairawhiti but we will have to have discussions going forward about how we are going to operate in a sustainable way because what we are doing as a region isn’t working.”
She promised more prosecutions if forestry companies were found to have breached resource consent conditions.
But while fed-up Te Tairawhiti people push for an independent inquiry into, and review of, land use planning, regulations and rules for their fragile local geography - considered to be some of the most erodible land in the world - the region’s forestry industry has been busy with its own plans for action.
Philip Hope, chief executive of the Eastland Wood Council, which represents around 80 per cent of production forestry participants in the region, says a major meeting next week will bring together foresters, local MPs, iwi, Maori landowners and industry people. Terms of reference have yet to be finalised but the council will address the meeting, Hope said.
“We don’t want people thinking we don’t care. We care about the community. We are part of the community. We know there’s work to be done on our social license.”
Hope says the foundations of the local forestry industry were laid long before climate change was heard of, and no one had expected the volumes that had come into the harvesting system after mass government planting dating back to the 1960s and after the devastating Cyclone Bola in 1988. These used old planting techniques in their efforts to counter severe pasture erosion which resulted in sheep stations being abandoned or sold and planted in radiata under a government afforestation incentive scheme. Practices of the time included planting through waterways and on very steep slopes.
Under a swag of changes and practices after Bola, this no longer happens.
But as the wood council says, it’s time to harvest those early plantings - which need to be cleared in order to bring in a modern, science-backed approach to forestry. Worsening erosion means the region needs trees more than ever, it reckons.
The many post-Bola practice changes aim to cut the size and amount of woody material that could be mobilised by severe rainfall to end up in waterways and on beaches.
“These measures have had a positive effect on the volume and size of woody debris ending up on east coast beaches. We are still working on mitigating measures and the impacts of climate change … however as the industry works through the legacy of the 1990s plantings and replaces it with best-practice operations, it is expected that from time to time, following severe rainfall events, there will still be woody debris carried out of harvested areas by the flood waters,” Hope says.
Wood council member companies are working with the Gisborne District Council and landowners to develop solutions for woody debris.
Hope would like it noted the wood council members’ code of principles includes taking accountability for actions and inactions and managing businesses according to the New Zealand Environmental Code of Practice for Plantation Forestry.
He says they also support a review of land use.
Farmer Toby Williams says it’s hugely expensive “to keep tidying up and re-fencing”.
Pasture can’t be replanted until wood debris is shifted. (The region supports beef and sheep farmers and cropping).
“It’s the water as much as the logging debris (that smashes fences) but you end up with logs and slash throughout paddocks. They have to go somewhere. You can’t just stack them on the riverbank to come down in the next flood.”
Williams says some of the latest devastation may be due to slope or ground slip failure “which no one can be blamed for”.
He credits forestry companies for being proactive after the latest event.
“In my catchment anyway, Aratu Forestry came straight in and started cleaning up.”
He believes any review or inquiry into land use needs to be led by the community, minus the “usual dominance” of local and central government politicians and forestry companies.
So who does he think is responsible for the forestry debris headache?
“We haven’t got exact information yet as to where (the latest) came from but the reality is, it comes down to four groups being ultimately responsible. First, the landowners and companies which own the land and forests. Second, management consultants who look after the land on behalf of forest owners. Third, contractors, the ones in the forest doing the work.
“Fourth, the district council. They set the rules and potentially haven’t done adequate monitoring.”
But Stoltz says after Bola the council introduced stricter consent conditions and increased monitoring.
“It’s not a council issue, it’s a regional issue. A huge area was planted in response to Cyclone Bola and we are now in the second and third (harvest) rotations. We are dealing with downstream issues from what happened years ago.”
She hopes ratepayers won’t be called on to pay for remedial work again. Her council’s rate take for the 2022-2023 year will be just $80.9m. The Government has made $100,000 available for recovery support for farmers and growers.
“Only when we move from emergency into recovery mode will we be able to tally up all the costs and see what (responsibility) sits where, but I do hope ratepayers will not be paying any more because we have already stumped up a lot.
“We will investigate the situation like we did in 2018 and if there are breaches to consent conditions we will prosecute.
“It’s way too early to start prioritising and putting dollar amounts next to what needs to be done – but it will need to be a collaborative effort between government, local government and forestry companies.”
She says the Eastland Wood Council has been “proactive” in offering to help with the latest clean-up.
“It’s important for us to look after our beaches, our land, our whenua, so we will be talking to the Government to make submissions that the National Policy Statement on Plantation Forestry review allows appropriate protection for our unique geology, (to ensure) it has conditions and appropriate protections that work for our unique region.”
The hilly East Coast region, said to contain some of the most erodible land in the world, in 2020 made up 9 per cent of New Zealand’s total planted forest area of 1.66 million hectares. Nine per cent was 155,359ha in 2020, compared to 156,556ha in 2018. Around 70,000ha of this was at harvestable age in 2020.
At $253m, forestry was the largest GDP contributor to the East Coast economy in FY19. Forestry export revenues through the local port were $438m in FY20.
Nationally, the value of forest product exports is expected to hit $6.5 billion in the year to June.
Eastland Wood Council’s Hope says Te Tairawhiti needs more trees not fewer, to prevent the most vulnerable lands from ending up in the sea – but a mix of species and “right tree, right place”.
“The frequent extreme weather events are increasing erosion events throughout the region.
“The estimated volume of erosion in the Tairawhiti region is 40 million tonnes per year. Based on Landcare estimates the value of soil loss from Tairawhiti alone is many millions of dollars.
“Given the recent flooding events, this calculation likely needs to be increased.”
In Gisborne, the industry provides more than 1000 fulltime-equivalent jobs.
Hope says he’s concerned about the mental health of forestry workers who, due to weather events, now contend with regular disruption of road and property access to their jobs.
Community outrage over the latest wood debris impact comes as the region’s economic development thinkers consider how to progress what they call an “exciting and untapped opportunity” for forestry waste for biomass energy production.
Wood-based fuels, such as wood pellets, are produced from residues generated in the sawmilling process or slash from forest harvesting operations.
Trust Tairawhiti economic development general manager Richard Searle says a key requirement for any business looking to switch heat plants to wood-based fuels is security of supply.
But there’s an imbalance across New Zealand with the larger forest-growing regions not necessarily having significant process heat users.
“This means those heat-using companies looking to switch their heat plants to a wood-based fuel, need to look at bringing in these wood fuels from out of region. This offers a major opportunity for the Tairawhiti region, given all its forestry slash.
If the economics worked, Tairawhiti could become a key hub to supply wood-based fuels to the rest of New Zealand, addressing the forestry waste issue, Searle says.
Work was under way with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority to produce a Tairawhiti regional energy accelerator programme this year.
A spokesman for Environment Minister David Parker said the East Coast slash situation “was of concern”.
“The source and content of the woody debris is currently being assessed. That said, forestry companies and landowners who plant and harvest wood products must comply with established rules around those activities and the relevant council is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the rules.”
The minister’s office noted a review of the National Policy Statement on plantation forests was under way. Officials were looking into what had happened in the region to determine whether there was a need to consider further changes to the policy statement beyond current change proposals or the Government’s broader system reform.
The Natural and Built Environment Bill, which will replace the RMA, would also increase penalties for consent breaches and introduce new tools to assist enforcement.
It would increase the maximum fines for environmental offences from the current $300,000 to $1m for natural persons and from $600,000 to $10m for companies. It was proposed insurance would no longer be able to be used to pay fines, the minister’s office said.
'When you go through a restructure, there's always a wee bit of settling in.'