Potential damage to Wanganui's rural roads by logging trucks has been grossly overstated, forester Ian Harrex says.
District council reports have said it may cost ratepayers an extra $20million over the next 25 years to keep rural roads up to scratch while logging trucks churn through carrying millions of tonnes of logs.
But Mr Harrex - who has 860ha of forest that will be harvested from 2017 to about 2023 - has jumped in to defend the industry.
He used Tokomaru East and Tokomaru West Rds to explain his take on the situation.
About 350,000 tonnes of logs had been harvested using those two roads in the past five years. Wanganui District Council figures showed about $800,000 was spent maintaining them during that time.
When money to fix storm damage and the 62 per cent New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) subsidy was subtracted, the remaining cost was only $230,000 - or 65 cents for each tonne of logs.
"The roads were in a deplorable state before harvesting began - they're brilliant now," Mr Harrex said.
He estimates there are still 200,000 tonnes of logs to come out of the area, and the road should need only minor maintenance for the next 25 years.
"The sheep and beef farmers who share these roads now enjoy superior access than they had previously."
If the same figures were applied across the whole district, the extra cost of logging on rural roads would be $5.4million - or $8million at most - not $20million.
He said some roads were in a particularly bad state before logging began. The Pukerimu Rd heading inland between Kai Iwi and Maxwell had bare clay showing through the metal for hundreds of metres until he drew it to the council's attention.
Kauarapaoa Rd was another in poor repair, with some forestry to be harvested.
Forest adviser Ian Moore has said there are 15,000ha of forest to be harvested in the Wanganui district.
Mr Harrex said each hectare had an average of 550 tonnes of logs to be moved, giving a combined Wanganui total of 8,250,000 tonnes of timber.
NZTA paid 62 per cent of the cost of maintaining rural roads and collected some of that money from forestry companies through road-user charges of 60 cents per kilometre for a loaded logging truck and 34c/km for an empty one. The average forestry crew paid about $100 a day in road-user charges.
Crews could be asked to work only in dry weather to avoid damage to roads, but Mr Harrex said that was unreasonable.
"An average logging crew probably has $2million to $3million of equipment on site with lease and hire-purchase payments. It's not practical to log only part-time."
NZTA wants more logs moved by rail rather than road and Mr Harrex said there would be more local sidings soon.
The benefit of forestry holding on to fragile soils should not be forgotten, he said.
"The critics fail to acknowledge the advantage of having had forestry on these fragile soils providing flood mitigation, protecting them from erosion and saving the waterways from siltation."