Forest slash stretches all the way up east coast after heavy rain
Thursday, 23 July 2020
After a horror experience in 2018, Tolaga Bay’s beach is once again covered in forest slash and looks worse than it did after the 2018 floods, a local man says.
Hikurangi Forest Farms was fined $379,500, last year after forestry debris flooded the settlement in 2018, Juken was also fined $152,000 along with other forestry companies.
Gisborne District Council said it was too early to determine if any companies would be prosecuted for the latest debris.
Tolaga Bay local Taimana Thatcher said the beach, turned wasteland, was covered in slash and stretched miles further up the coast.
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“This is the fourth time since 2018 that we’re stuck in this situation again. Not only are we looking at the environmental impacts on the surface, but we’re looking at what’s going on underneath, in the river, foreshore, seabeds and river.
“It’s pretty much the same as 2018, if not worse,” he said.
Thatcher said there was an “overwhelming push for forestry as the main economic driver” for the region, but it was compromising the fisheries”.
“A lot of the slash gets washed out into the sea, but then it just sits under the surface. It’s impacting on crayfish beds, paua beds, kina beds – there’s a huge ecosystem out there that’s getting heavily impacted on.”
Thatcher said the slash was currently being cleared off the beach, but said there needed to be measures put in place with “no shortcuts” where felled trees ended up in the rivers and the sea.
The devastation stretched from Tolaga Bay to Ruatoria, as seen by Farmer Henry Gaddum, who flew over the area in a helicopter.
He said Gisborne District Council needed to have “a proper look” at the environmental damage that was being caused by the slash.
“Ruatoria is just as bad as Tolaga, if not worse,” he said.
“I’m not against forestry - we need the industry. What’s distressing is the thought that the Government’s ETS and carbon scheme will entice forestry owners to lock these blocks for non-harvest, meaning just as bad environmental effects such as unharvested trees beginning to come down into the creeks as the hillside collapses under the weight.”
Ūawanui Environmental Sustainability Project chairman Victor Walker said forestry slash had been an issue for about 12 years but, after 2018, change began to happen.
“We’re now at that forum where we can be free and frank with each other, and we’ve come out with some real solutions about what we’re going to do”.
Forest Owners Association communications manager Don Carlson said the current clearing of the beach in Tolaga Bay would take a matter of days “going into weeks”.
”There’s very unstable soils in the likes of Golden Bay and other areas around there. If we get more intense rain fall – that’s when things go bad,” he said.
“We’re not pretending it’s something we can eliminate when you’ve got that combination of unstable soils in which even in-tact trees can go. But we can do a much better job where the soils are more of a risk, along with harvesting and planting practices, so we can reduce the likelihood of it happening.”
Carlson said forestry companies were investing in ‘’debris traps’’ to prevent slash from clogging rivers and streams.
Gisborne District Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann saidwork was underway by the forestry industry to clear the debris.
“We take these issues very seriously and remain committed to working with the Ūawanuii community on this issue and to ensuring greater compliance by the forestry industry.”