Gisborne forestry companies fined $126,000 for breaching consent conditions

Saturday, 3 August 2024

Council discovered 400m unconsented forestry road.

Two Gisborne forestry companies have been fined a total of $126,000 for offending discovered after a heavy rain event in March 2022

Council staff discovered an unconsented 400metre road and skid site on a highly erosion-prone hillside

The offending led to large volumes of soil and slash entering waterways

Offending by Gisborne forestry companies that included the building of an unconsented 400metre road on land that was highly prone to erosion has led to fines totalling $126,000.

Samnic Forest Management Limited and, Forest Management Solutions Limited, the forest’s manager, were prosecuted by Gisborne District Council for events that took place in the 940hectare Samnic Forest, about 45 kilometres north of Gisborne.

The 400m unconsented road and skid site on highly erosion-prone land in Samnic Forest, near Gisborne

Both companies pleaded guilty to two representative charges of breaching the Resource Management Act. Judge David Kirkpatrick issued his reserved decision on Thursday.

The forest is on steep terrain prone to erosion. It lies in a catchment that flows into the Waiau River, then the Hikuwai River, before entering the sea at Tolaga Bay.

The unconsented road in Samnic Forest, near Gisborne

Prior to the latest offending, which occurred in mid-2022, the council had raised concerns with the companies on five occasions since April 2017 in relation to poor harvesting practices and contraventions of resource consent conditions.

Slopes of the forest were littered with considerable volumes of logs that had been left behind at the conclusion of harvesting.

The directors of Samnic were issued abatement notices for breaching resource conditions in 2017 and 2018, and further non-compliance was noted in 2019 and 2020, when a log jam of slash and debris of 6,000m3 and 150m long formed in a stream in the catchment.

The latest offending was discovered by council staff investigating the forest in April and May 2022 as a part of a region-wide investigation of forestry operations following significant rain events in March 2022.

Council staff found a found an unconsented and poorly constructed 400m long road together with an unconsented and poorly constructed skid site at the end of the road, located in an area classified as highly susceptible to erosion, sediment generation and soil loss. The road had not been stabilised and did not comply any best practice guides.

Material left on forest slopes after harvesting in Samnic Forest, near Gisborne

The council staff also found numerous skid site and roading failures caused by contraventions of consent conditions and poor practice, and signs of debris and sediment that had discharged into waterways.

An ecological assessment undertaken following the March 2022 storm identified that large volumes of soil and slash had discharged into waterways in Samnic Forest during the event, with much of it caused or exacerbated by non-compliance with the resource consent and failures to carry out best practice.

The council learned that the road had been constructed in mid-2021 by roading contractor, Yarding Solutions Limited, though it was not charged.

Council prosecutor Adam Hopkinson said the offending by Samnic and FMSL “involved a high degree of carelessness”.

“The defendants were aware that it was a high-risk environment, in terms of both its classification as being highly erodible land and its history of storms resulting in mobilisation of slash in watercourses, and a vulnerable environment in terms of the protected watercourses in this forest,” he said.

He said the importance of complying with resource conditions and the seriousness of breaching conditions would have been well known to the defendants given previous decisions in the court.

Hopkinson said Samnic’s culpability was high given its role as the holder of the consent and the forestry rights, with overall responsibility for the activities and the management of the risks, while FMSL had relatively lower culpability given its limited involvement and the fact that it inherited some of the compliance issues from the previous contractor.

Judge Kirkpatrick said he was concerned that the previous contractor “who would appear to have greater culpability” than FMSL was not before the court.

After giving discounts for guilty pleas and good conduct, he sentenced them to pay a fine of $91,000 and FMSL to pay a fine of $35,000. Ninety percent of the fines will be paid to the council.