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Forestry company appeals fine of $124,700, claiming it was unfairly singled out

Tuesday, 18 August 2020

Log debris like this north of Gisborne in June 2018 led to prosecutions of 10 forestry companies. (File photo)
Log debris like this north of Gisborne in June 2018 led to prosecutions of 10 forestry companies. (File photo)

A forestry company that claimed it had been unfairly singled out for its contribution to flood damage near Gisborne in 2018 storms has appealed a $124,700 fine.

DNS Forest Products 2009 Ltd was one of 10 companies prosecuted by Gisborne District Council following destruction wrought by tonnes of forestry waste that cascaded down valleys to the north of Gisborne in two storms in June 2018.

Two other companies had been dealt with for their offending. Juken New Zealand was fined $152,000 late last year. Aratu, formerly known as Hikurangi Forest Farms, was fined $379,000 in January.

**READ MORE:

The tsunami of logs and sediment piled up on East Coast beaches following the 2018 storms. (File photo)
The tsunami of logs and sediment piled up on East Coast beaches following the 2018 storms. (File photo)

* Forest slash stretches all the way up east coast after heavy rain

* Environmental devastation at Tolaga Bay may take a century to recover, says councillor

* Family outraged by $150k fine for forestry company after death of young father

* Hikurangi Forest Farms fined $379,000 over slash destruction

* Council's failure to monitor forestry company was 'reprehensible' - judge

Judge Brian Dwyer said DNS held the resource consent and the ‘’buck stopped with it’’. (File photo)
Judge Brian Dwyer said DNS held the resource consent and the ‘’buck stopped with it’’. (File photo)

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DNS pleaded guilty 10 days before it was to stand trial in February. Following that , the council withdrew charges against its alleged co-offenders, A and R Logging and Logic Forest Solutions.

DNS was sentenced by Environment Court Judge Brian Dwyer late last month.

The company held resource consent to harvest 398 hectares of pine trees from Makiri Forest, about 38 kilometres north of Gisborne in the headwaters of the Waihora Valley.

DNS engaged A and R Logging to harvest the wood and build skid sites and roads between them. It hired Logic to oversee and audit the work and report back to DNS, which marketed and sold the logs.

Relationships between DNS and the parties deteriorated and in January 2018 A and R and Logic quit the site.

When the storms hit five months later, they brought down massive amounts of forest waste onto neighbouring properties which blocked waterways, damaged roads and covered the coast in debris.

Damage in the Waihora valley was “extreme”.

Council investigations found that numerous failings in the Makiri Forest operation had led to forest waste washing down the valley.

Prior to sentencing DNS’s lawyer Matt Atkinson argued that A and R and Logic were “the principal offenders and the parties with the greatest culpability for the offending” and told Judge Dwyer that to convict DNS when the other parties had charges withdrawn would be an obvious misadministration of justice.

Tolaga Bay's beach is still littered with slash, a year on from a storm. (Video first published in 2019)

He sought a discharge without conviction.

Judge Dwyer did not see it that way. He said DNS was a “hands-off’’ forester that depended on its manager and contractor to perform as they should.

While DNS was “badly let down” it held the resource consent and “in layman’s terms ‘the buck stopped with it’”.

He said DNS had five months after the contractors walked off the site in which to repair any potential problems.

DNS went into liquidation in May. Judge Dwyer noted this before imposing the fine of $124,700 and ordering the company to pay $6500 reparation to the owners of Makutu Station, which sustained a large amount of damage.

Stuff understands the fine is outside the realm of the liquidator, Palliser, meaning it is unlikely to be paid from the company’s assets.

The council would not comment while the matter was under appeal, due to be heard next month.

The sole director and shareholder of DNS Forest Products 2009 Ltd, Daning Sun, did not wish to comment.

The company was put into liquidation in May after it was unable to pay a judgment creditor.

The 10 forestry companies prosecuted by Gisborne District Council following the June 2018 floods.

(charged with breaching the Resource Management Act, alleging discharge of forestry waste on to land/water).