Forestry company owner says charges of crimes against the environment lacked merit

John Turkington's forestry company has been cleared of causing criminal harm to the environment following a four-week trial in the Whanganui District Court.

A forestry company owner’s decision to fight charges of committing crimes against the environment while harvesting logs were validated when a jury returned not guilty verdicts, he says.

John Turkington Ltd went on trial before Judge David Kirkpatrick and a jury of six men and six women in the Environment Court at Whanganui on January 9, facing five charges laid by Horizons Regional Council relating to two different logging sites.

Company owner John Turkington, a former Horizons regional councillor elected in 2019 who did not stand in last year’s elections, was also initially charged with similar offences, but the charges were later dropped.

The company pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to work done while harvesting logs at a site on Rangitatau East Rd, Kai Iwi, between April 2018 and June 2019, and the Rewa Forest, southeast of Hunterville, between December 2018 and June 2019.

It was alleged the company breached the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES) by failing to stop large volumes of soil sliding down the banks into a waterway after a new track was built, and then failed to comply with an order to correct the situation at the Kai Iwi site.

At Rewa Forest, the company was alleged to have breached its consent by using heavy machinery in the Mangatutu Stream and an unnamed tributary, failing to stop debris from the harvesting operation from entering a waterway and conducting earthworks in contravention of the NES.

A charge of breaching NES standards by undertaking earthworks in a manner not expressly permitted, at the Rewa Forest, was dismissed on January 17.

The jury then cleared the company of any wrongdoing, delivering four not guilty verdicts to the remaining charges on February 3.

Turkington said the decision to defend the charges was straightforward.

“I have always maintained that the charges were without merit and would be strenuously defended,” he told NZME.

“I stand by my values, my professional integrity and that of my staff, the industry, environmental experts with whom we work on a daily basis, and that of my clients.”

Turkington, who has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years, said he was incredibly proud of his staff, who were experts in their field.

“My team includes individuals who are called upon by industry and Government agencies to advise on the development of best-practice standards for the sector, including those which fall under the Resource Management Act and National Environmental Standards.”

Despite the last three years being incredibly stressful and the hefty cost of the trial, Turkington said he would make the same decision again on principle.

“However, in my view, there is a better way of dealing with these issues, which does not involve a litigious and adversarial approach by the regulator, [but] rather a collaborative and constructive engagement between the parties that places environmental outcomes at the centre of the matter.”

Horizons Regional Council strategy and regulation group manager Dr Nic Peet said the organisation wanted to thank the jury and judge for considering the case through a long and complicated trial.

“As a responsible regulator, the matter was an important one to bring before the court,” Peet said.

Any decision to appeal the verdicts would be made by the Crown, he said.

John Turkington Ltd’s website says it was established in 1993 and now manages more than 10,000 hectares of forestry across the lower North Island and Southland, marketing more than 100 truckloads of logs each day.

It claims to be one of New Zealand’s most prominent forestry consultancies, offering services ranging from forest establishment, management and silviculture through to harvesting and log exports.