MILLING native timber with an unregistered mill could cost a rural Wanganui man a fine of $200,000. Peter Michael Knuth, a permanent part-time Wanganui District Council animal control officer, pleaded guilty in Wanganui District Court yesterday to a single charge of using an unregistered sawmill to mill indigenous timber. The timber wassaid to belong to Taunoka Land Co, the property of David (Tuffy) Churton and family. A fine of $200,000 is the maximum penalty for the offence, Crown prosecutor Stephen Ross told the court. He outlined how officers from the Indigenous Forestry Unit (IFU) went to a Brunswick Rd property on two occasions in March last year, as part of an ongoing investigation. They found a large twin circular portable sawmill, surrounded by sawdust, the bottom flitch of a freshly milled rimu log, seven cubic metres of freshly milled and stacked rimu timber and several unmilled rimu, miro and other logs. Some of the stacked timber was hidden under a camouflage net. Returning to the same property a week later, they found evidence that milling had continued and seized 9.5 cubic metres of rimu. In November Mr Knuth told a forestry officer that he owned the sawmill and had lent it to Mr Churton. He said he had expected Mr Churton to register it. A check showed the mill had not been registered by anyone. Mr Knuth told the officer he didn't believe cutting native timber with a sawmill was an offence and had expected Mr Churton to "deal with the regulation side of things". He was not sure how much rimu timber was milled, but said the milling happened over three or four days. Mr Knuth has no previous convictions and is due back in court to be sentenced on September 28. His council employers didn't know about the charge against him until after he had appeared in court yesterday. Chief executive David Warburton has been asked to investigate and report back, a council spokesperson said. IFU senior forestry adviser Ian Platt has previously told the Chronicle that people harvesting indigenous timber from private land have to meet a number of conditions. They have to have a sustainable forest plan or permit and have to register this against the relevant land title. The mill where the timber is sawn also has to be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). Once this is done the owner is bound to manage the forest sustainably, which includes pest and weed control and not harvesting at a faster rate than the trees regenerate.
