Locals across the Tasman District say the flood damage has been worsened by forestry slash. Photo / RNZ
Locals across the Tasman District say the flood damage has been worsened by forestry slash. Photo / RNZ
By RNZ
A forestry industry leader says many of the trees that came down in Tasman were growing trees that had fallen, not slash.
The head of the Forest Owners Association is flying to flood-damaged Tasman as it grapples with fallen trees, forestry slash and silt.
It appears the forestryindustry itself has taken a big hit, with thousands of hectares of pine plantations wiped out.
Forest Owners Association chief executive Elizabeth Heeg told RNZ’s Morning Report the forestry industry was open to changing its management operations.
“I appreciate in a really hard event, like what we have just been through, that it seems like there should be a way for us to prevent the wood coming down into the communities, and that’s something that we are really interested in working with the communities on.”
However, Heeg said there were several areas that weren’t active harvesting operations where growing trees had come down.
“We are really going to have to look at, with these multiple storm impacts with climate change, how we are going to manage these forests.
“At this stage, what we know about the damage to forestry is that a lot of it has been driven either by landslides that were in standing forestry, we’ve possibly got some landslides in areas that have been recently replanted, we’ve also seen a considerable amount of windthrow – that’s where the trees snap off at the base – due to the high winds at the end of last week.”
Heeg said windthrow looked to have impacted “about 4000 hectares”.
“It looks like it is going to be a pretty big recovery and clean-up operation,” she said.
Bethany Park Campground in Kaiteriteri had extensive flood damage. Photo / RNZ
“Some of these specific soil types, like the Separation Point Granite, get saturated and can just give way, including with all the trees that are on top of them.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do from a climate change adaptation perspective.”
Meanwhile, an information drop-in centre has been set up in Motueka to provide support to flood-affected locals.
Deputy chair of the Motueka Community Board and co-ordinator for local business association Love Motueka, Claire Hutt, told Morning Report there were still a lot of people unable to return home.
Hutt said about 60 people could not return home – most were staying with friends and family, but some were in the local hotel.
“Hotel Motueka’s still got four rooms full of people who had to be evacuated, and yes, some of the streets in the Motueka township have had raw sewage down the street ... it is not very pleasant.”
She said sewage had become a real problem for the township.
“I don’t know what they are going to do ... [the sewage] has actually been an issue in the past, it’s not their first rodeo in that department.
“We need to start looking at making sure it doesn’t happen again as part of the recovery process.
“But top priority is getting as much information out to the community so it’s all in one place ... and also doing welfare checks on people.
“A lot of stressed, tired people out there, and just turning up with a shovel and a smile can make the world of difference.”
