Slash and burn in Tolaga Bay

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Lily Stender takes a drag from her rolled cigarette before the phone rings.

The fire at the Tolaga Bay Inn is lit: it will be cold tonight. It's a Tuesday – the pub has probably seen better days.

It's attached to the back of a homestead, which has been fighting for historic status, to no avail, despite its 120-year-plus legacy.

The building is hard to miss on a small, slower-speed stretch of the Pacific Coast road, State Highway 35.

**READ MORE:

* Tolaga Bay clean-up could cost $10m, but who should pay?

* Forestry slash reminder economic boon not without problems

* Farmers call for logging halt, compensation after damage**

The highway meanders through flat land, past cattle and sheep and often close to coastlines you'd see on the covers of glossy travel magazines, all the way up the East Cape and round to Ōpōtiki.

Instead of being packed with tourists – which is easy to imagine in a warmer season – there are shanty shacks, abandoned honesty boxes and the occasional surfer urinating out of direct view from passing vehicles.

It's hard to ignore the logging trucks, too – big ones. Many will be coming from Tolaga Bay, population 768, and about 40 minutes' drive north of Gisborne.

Just over one year ago, disaster stemming partly from that logging industry hit the small seaside community.

JUNE 4, 2018

It's 5.30am on a Monday and Taylah Mitchell and her family are sound asleep. They are about eight kilometres inland.

They're woken suddenly. Not by an alarm, but by rising floodwaters, carrying with them tonnes of logging waste, known as slash.

Her brother, not even awake, is floating around on his mattress.

The level is up to that of the house's tabletops – that's on top of the half-metre which the property is already elevated.

The property – an old villa – is later condemned, as the walls were made of hessian fabric.

All of its insides have been cleared out. Barely anything was salvageable.

A year on, the slash is still ever-present around Tolaga Bay, on its beach and all along the Uawa River.

Mitchell, who was 19 at the time, now works at one of a few local stores that sell food and drinks.

We're interrupted at least half a dozen times by customers, all of whom appear to be regulars. They buy various items, and use loose change. There's an old-fashioned cash register on the desk, next to jars of assorted lollies.

One woman who overhears I'm doing a story says: 'Nothing's changed much. Have you noticed that?'

Everyone bursts into laughter.

The store – the Uawa Foodmarket – is run by Dolly and Brian Mitchell, part of Taylah's whānau. While I'm speaking to Taylah, the couple are out the back eating a late lunch of cooked sausage. It's about 3pm.

Before ushering me to Taylah, Dolly jokes: 'You never have set times around here … you just take it when it happens'.

Taylah now lives in town with her grandparents. Her parents are living elsewhere.

It's frustrating, she says. 'You just do what you have to do … We're doing all good.'

Her family lost everything. They had insurance, but their claim was denied.

'It was quite gutting, but we just had to move on.'

She shows me pictures from the day on her phone. Their truck nearly went down the river, but was halted by an adjacent stopbank.

She gestures to her phone: 'That was all underwater, you couldn't see any of that.'

She reckons they were lucky, as their house wasn't flooded with slash, or forestry debris.

Ironically, her father came to evacuate them in his logging truck.

Wiremu Maurirere, 26, says there were three helicopters in town that day. Just one was a rescue crew, the others were from television stations.

One family, including a girl aged 4, were stranded on their roof for hours before being airlifted to safety.

'We had all the farmers that could get into town out with their tractors, trying to pave way through the roads for people to get out and back in,' he says.

But that wasn't the only way the community came together.

Taylah Mitchell says that, in addition to monetary donations, there were food parcel deliveries.

'I feel like our community will always be strong. Even with the stuff that happens, we always just get back up and support each other.'

Maurirere adds it's 'not in our spirits'. 'You wouldn't want to carry a year of depression.'

'I'll say,' Mitchell replies.

THE WALL OF WOOD

Stender says that, while the beach is still a mess, up the Uawa River is even worse, and she's right.

'You'll cry if you go up there. It's a graveyard of trees. It's despicable, absolutely despicable.'

Forestry companies don't allow the public past a certain point any more, for health and safety reasons, instead allowing access only to logging trucks for the workers to get in and out, she says.

She reckons it's actually because locals would be 'horrified' seeing the reality of the situation. 'It's literally just mountains of wood, stacked.'

A short drive up Tauwhareparae Rd reveals piles of debris stacked on the side of the pavement, leftover slash in mounds, and land stripped of its vitality.

Whenever there's heavy rain, more debris washes back down through the waterways. Most of it ends up on the beach.

That day, June 4, it's a miracle nobody was killed, Stender says. But she knows another big rain will come.

'The problem has not gone away. It really is a big issue. And no-one wants to pay for the solution, because it's costly. But there are ways around it.'

There have been a few ideas attempted and/or thrown out – burning the slash on the beach, turning it into charcoal, burning it on-site, people bringing it down and reselling it as firewood.

Jessie Thatcher, 34, and her partner tried the firewood strategy for a while, until the companies prevented them from going further upstream, citing health and safety.

'That's an excuse. You could have a forestry crew trained up to do that. But they don't because it's [they] who's going to bear the cost,' Stender says.

She reckons the burning on the beach is an ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff way of thinking.

'It was all clear for summer, so all the tourists see beautiful Tolaga Bay – yay, tourists are happy with us. Boom – all back to firewood again.'

John Shortland, 41, says the companies are all talk.

There was a public meeting held last year, but it 'turned to sh..' because locals were 'too p….d off' to have a decent conversation.

'It's not what they did say, it's what they didn't say. They weren't saying, 'Our problem, we'll fix it.' That's what everyone was waiting for.'

'It won't be until a kid dies on the beach that they're really going to take notice,' Stender says.

It's not out of the question – the bay has become a holding area for slash, and jumping off the Uawa River bridge has been a pastime for Tolaga Bay youth for generations.

Maurirere says you can't go out surfing, diving or swimming now without getting concussed by floating logs.

This has frustrated the community's surf lifesavers and boaties, who also have to navigate logs wedged in the sand and sticking up through the sea.

Locals try as best they can to clear it, but rain and swells mean the problem just keeps happening.

'SWALLOWING POISON'

Uawa's marine life – crayfish, mussels, whitebait, eels – has faced 'phenomenal destruction' since last year, Stender says.

'We're worried about our food … The toxins that those pine trees are putting into our kai.'

She scrunches up her face: 'We're going to be 10 years later and look like this.'

Last season, there was no whitebait in the river, possibly because they couldn't spawn on the riverbanks strewn with slash.

Thatcher says even the barnacles on the rocks, and pāua, have been affected.

'We're still eating it, but the logging ain't making it any healthier. We had healthy seafood before that happened.

'We don't really know what we're eating, but we're still eating it because that's what we've been doing for years.'

HOPE BEYOND FORESTRY

The number of logs going through Gisborne's Eastland Port is predicted to double to five million tonnes a year by 2024.

Forestry accounts for the greatest share of regional GDP in the Gisborne region, at more than 5 per cent, and one in four households has a member whose job is dependent on the industry.

Tolaga Bay is intrinsically linked to forestry. The locals know it, and are keen to get away.

In addition to being physically taxing work, it's extremely dangerous: a 28-year-old man died in a workplace logging accident in Tolaga Bay in February.

People have also died in logging accidents at Gisborne Port in April and October, and another in a crash with a logging truck on SH35 in November.

'We cannot rely on them any more … It's killing our lands and killing our people. We're sick of it,' Stender says.

But in a sparely populated coastal community, employment opportunities are few.

That's precisely what the Tolaga Bay Inn Charitable Trust hopes to change.

As part of its goal to build grassroots businesses to get locals away from the forestry/fishing industries, an innovation hub is run out of the inn to help people take the lead on self-employment, and tackle the cycle of benefit dependence.

The project provides wraparound support in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development, from everything including business design to financial management, through to marketing the end product.

Each client is paired with a mentor to help develop their idea into a viable income stream.

Thatcher's business, Jessie's Charters, is looking at the issue of boating in waters where there are logs everywhere.

With the four businesses that launched in April, each has achieved its first milestone agreed at the outset – these are different for each client, but could include completing a business plan, market research, a first confirmed customer, or product design/development.

One more business has joined the first four, with more on the way.

There's still another year to go in the programme, but already, positive signs are beginning to show, Employment Minister Willie Jackson says.

The Government has contributed $84,500 to date on the project.

'Tolaga Bay is steeped in history, cultural richness and natural resources that I am sure many, many tourists would come a long way to see,' Jackson says.

'There are challenges around whether there is enough infrastructure to support an increase in volumes of tourists, but if the will is there for that to happen, then I'm sure that can be addressed in a sustainable way.'

One arm the programme is exploring is the hemp and medicinal marijuana sector, which has already found success north of Tolaga Bay in Ruatoria with Hikurangi Cannabis Company.

Stender says the crop 'rejuvenates' land – as opposed to pine – and the company is trying to get licences.

'They [Ruatoria] need the Coast to help grow to provide the volumes required. If we're going to compete against the global outfits, we have to do it collaboratively. That's the name of the game.'

It's hard to imagine Tolaga Bay without forestry, though.

Alison Waru is the project co-ordinator for Uawanui Te Mana O Te Wai, the organisation tasked with working with various parties over the cleanup.

She says it's about seeking 'opportunity out of adversity'.

'Forestry is here. It's in our blood. I understand both sides … They're investing money in our community, they've got forest in our community, why not capitalise on that?'

But it's equally important teaching youth that, as another rotation of pines are planted, forestry doesn't just involve being at the bottom of the hill, she says.

Hikurangi Forest Farms has agreed to section off some of its land to test out native plantings – particularly tarata/lemonwood – with deeper and stronger roots, to see if they will fare any better than pine in a similar storm event.

That work with natives extends to the classroom at Tolaga Bay Area School, where planting is part of the curriculum.

Over the past three years, students have planted more than 36,000 native species. 'That's pretty cool for a town of 800,' Waru says.

LESSONS LEARNED

On a forecasting level, MetService says it was 'very likely impossible' to have predicted the storm, which was 'incredibly localised'.

'While rare for an event like this to go undetected by the models, it can and does happen.'

Forecasts MetService used indicated significant rainfall north of Tokomaru Bay, further up the coast, for which it issued a severe weather watch about 30 hours before the Tolaga Bay event.

Data from the Insurance Council of New Zealand shows $4.3 million was paid out in 1114 insurance claims over the flooding. The council didn't hold data about declined claims.

Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon says the Gisborne council has stepped up in terms of better monitoring its resource consents, and making more frequent in-person visits to forestry sites across the district.

'The lessons that have come out of this is action, action, action. … Council's always in the gun for all sorts of things, but in this case we need to do our job better.'

Foon says there are hopes that French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Tolaga Bay in October to launch a 'big project' as part of the Te Hā Sestercentennial​ celebrations, marking 250 years since Captain Cook landed in New Zealand.

'Tolaga Bay is a very resilient community, it is an innovative community and they like to celebrate, so I would say that the future bodes well for Tolaga Bay.'

Russell Dale, the research and development manager for the New Zealand Forestry Owners' Association, says in the wake of Tolaga Bay, the industry has initiated a range of projects to mitigate future events.

'We recognised what we had to deal with there was a pretty extreme event … What exacerbated the situation up there was all of those forests were planted after Cyclone Bola.'

The projects included debris traps in waterways, planning harvesting areas more carefully, looking at different methods of felling to reduce breakage, airlifting slash from vulnerable areas, and commercial opportunities to utilise slash – bio-energy, power generation.

However, Dale says, 'the answer is, there's so single solution'.

He rejects criticism the industry is putting money into defending its case in court, rather than investing in solutions.

'The industry is taking this issue very seriously.

'It happened, all we would say was it was a combination of some pretty extreme weather conditions, and I don't think people appreciate just how extreme that storm event was.

'If all of that forest had been in one ownership, it would have been easier for there to be a response.'

Forestry Minister Shane Jones says he expects the industry to take responsibility for its activities.

'Tolaga Bay was a wakeup call for many. I am hearing stories of areas of highly erosion-prone land, that are difficult to harvest, being retired.

'This is good news, but I understand foresters are balancing the benefits of this with the need to ensure they don't leave trees susceptible to windthrow, which would pose downstream risks in the long term.'

ONGOING LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

In December, Gisborne District Council announced it was prosecuting 10 forestry companies over the damage. It wouldn't comment while the case was before the courts.

It charged them with breaching the Resource Management Act, alleging they discharged contaminants (forestry waste) on to land/water.

The companies are A and R Logging, DNS Forest Products 2009, Ernslaw One, Hikurangi Forest Farms, Juken New Zealand, Logic Forest Solutions, Permanent Forests, PF Olsen, South Pacific Forestry Holdings, and Timbergrow.

All originally pleaded not guilty. However, at an Environment Court hearing this week, Hikurangi Forest Farms changed its pleas to guilty.

The company will be sentenced in Gisborne on October 1. The others have been remanded for another hearing on September 23.

Stender says the great thing with Hikurangi Forest Farms' guilty plea is 'that's the start of recognising it'.

But Waru doesn't think the other companies will have a similar change of heart.

'I think they're letting the other forestry company take the hit. But that's up to their conscience.'

Hikurangi general manager Ian Brown 'felt obligated to help' from the get-go, and it was one of just two companies to help pay for beach slash to be burned, Waru says.

For the others, it came down to talk of 'that's not my log'. 'Who cares, just do something.'

HAPPY ENTREPRENEURS

In light of its challenges, it's easy to think Tolaga Bay's strength could waver. That its people could give up.

Maurirere says they've always been a tight-knit community, because the majority of them are family.

'We're so, so, so close. But events like what happened last year is what brings us closer. It's really important as a community that we stick together, through the good and the bad.'

Waru says, then and now, the people of Uawa are happy.

'Despite the flooding, despite the logs, despite unemployment, no-one is really hungry. No-one is really that angry that they've got a frown on their face.

'We love our community, and we love our people. Warts and all.'