Logging operation escapes censure over farm damage after ECan barks up the wrong tree

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Philip King and his manager Danny Summers were left to clean up after tonnes of debris washed on to Loudon Farm in July.

A logging operation that was inadvertently cutting down trees illegally left a farmer's land swamped with debris and thousands of logs during one of the heaviest rainfalls of last winter.

But legal action is not being taken against the companies involved – because Environment Canterbury (ECan) officers gave them the wrong advice over resource consents.

The Banks Peninsula farm was littered with logs from a near by forestry block.

Loudon Farm, near Teddington on the Banks Peninsula, was badly damaged in July when swathes of logs and debris were washed down from Waiake Forest on the hill above.

Owner Philip King and farm manager Danny Summers found tonnes of slash – logging off-cuts – that washed down nearby Waiake Stream was scattered up to six metres high, flattening fences and ruining grazing paddocks.

Summers was left to rescue his bike after it was washed into a swollen creek.

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King is now in the middle of an insurance claim with some of those behind the logging operation.

More debris blocked the stream for three kilometres, Summers' cottage was flooded and logs and sediment washed into Lyttelton Harbour.

At the time King estimated the damage to be in excess of $100,000 and that repairs would take two years.

ECan considered taking legal action against Waiake Forestry Ltd, which owns land above the farm, and PF Olsen, contracted to manage the harvest, over the latter's failure to hold a resource consent and the debris on King's land.

But it decided it couldn't because it had failed to notify the firms of the need for consents to remove vegetation near a waterway.

The incident happened on July 21, a period when almost a month's worth of rain fell on Banks Peninsula in just two days.

Land was already saturated from earlier rain and a large number of trees had blown down in high winds.

Under planning rules, those responsible for the logging operation were required to ensure debris did not end up in the stream bed or was left on land where it could enter the water.

In an internal report, ECan investigator Nathan Dougherty said that 'in my opinion, this part of the rule is complex and very difficult to interpret'.

PF Olsen conceded it should have had resource consent to log by the waterway, he wrote, but ECan staff had suggested it was a permitted activity that did not need consent.

ECan officers previously advised Waiake Forestry the log harvesting activities were within the rules.

James Tricker, ECan's regional leader for compliance delivery, said the 'unprecedented' level of rain made any issue of consents a moot point.

He said: 'Had they had a resource consent, knowing what these conditions had been, we still think they wouldn't have been able to stop this from happening.

'No one wanted to see this happen. It was not good for the land owner or the forestry people, but it was an act of God.'

ECan has since improved training and monitoring of forestry activities, he added, and new environmental standards will be introduced in May.

King and Waiake Forestry joint manager Alan Ogle declined to comment because of an ongoing insurance claim.

PF Olsen environmental manager Kit Richards said there was no intent to circumvent legislation and that the lack of consent was a result of an 'inadvertent and unfortunate miscommunication', adding he had no doubt permission to fell trees by the stream would have been given if applied for.