Action taken against forestry company following bridge damage

Friday, 6 December 2024

Gisborne forestry company plans to build region's first slash catcher.

A forestry company with a history of non-compliance is facing further legal action.

Slash and debris from a forest belonging to Aratu Forests Ltd caused significant damage to a bridge, land and infrastructure in 2018 and again in Cyclone Gabrielle last year.

Gisborne District Council has applied to the Environment Court seeking an order that would require the company to clean up debris in the forest that the council says is at risk of causing further damage.

A forestry company that left debris on hillsides that washed away and damaged a Gisborne bridge during Cyclone Gabrielle is facing legal action that would require it to address ongoing risks.

Large amounts of woody debris and sediment in Aratu Forest Ltd’s Wakaroa Forest, 38km north of Gisborne, was mobilised in the cyclone and severely impacted land and infrastructure, including Uttings Bridge.

Gisborne District Council had held concerns around the company’s activities in the 1300 hectare forest over several years. In 2020 the company (then known as Hikurangi Forest Farms Ltd) was prosecuted and fined $100,000 for offending that occurred in the forest in a major storm in 2018.

Aratu is owned by an international forestry investment company, New Forests Limited, which is based in Australia and owns 550,000ha of forests around the world, including 35,000ha in the Gisborne/Tairāwhiti area.

That fine was part of a broader range of offending that cost the company $379,000.

When council staff inspected the forest following Cyclone Gabrielle they found numerous logjams and large amounts of debris on hillsides at risk of being washed away.

A map showing where council officers found debris downstream of Wakaroa Forest in July 2023.

An inspection of the forest by council staff under a search warrant in February this year revealed 18 debris dams within streams at Wakaroa Forest and numerous other issues.

A further inspection, carried out by staff in September, found the overall state of Wakaroa Forest to be poor, with a remaining high risk of mobilisation of sediment and woody debris unless adequate remedial work was carried out.

The council said Wakaroa Forest was typical of those in Gisborne/Tairāwhiti in all respects, with steep hill faces and highly erodible soil.

The storm in 2018 and Cyclone Gabrielle caused large amounts of sediment and forestry harvesting debris to be mobilised and washed into the Waimata River and the Waipaoa River, causing significant damage to properties and infrastructure immediately downstream of Wakaroa Forest, including to Uttings Bridge.

More than 1,000 hectares of clear fell harvesting had been carried out in the forest with with what the council said was “poor skid site construction and large amounts of slash and felled trees being left at the conclusion of harvesting where it can migrate down slopes into streams which flow into the Waimata River or Waipaoa River, both of which flow into the sea near Gisborne”.

The council said the ongoing discharges of contaminants to streams and rivers at Wakaroa Forest as the result of the commercial forestry harvesting activities were contraventions of the Resource Management Act.

Since 2015 the Tairāwhiti region has experienced significant damage to watercourses, beaches near river mouths, and infrastructure as the result of woody debris from commercial forestry (including felled trees, windthrow trees, slash, harvesting debris) discharging from commercial pine forests during significant rain events.

The council this week applied to the Environment Court for an enforcement notice, requiring Aratu to address the ongoing issues.

“Previous attempts by the council to address the compliance issues at Wakaroa Forest (including prosecution, abatement notices, compliance reports and a forest management plan) have failed to stop the ongoing discharge of woody debris and sediment at and from Wakaroa Forest,” the council said in its application.

The enforcement order seeks to require Aratu and Crapp to cease discharging woody debris or sediment onto land where it could enter water, or beyond the boundary of Wakaroa Forest.

It would also require the company to complete a risk assessment report of the forest by March next year, and to remove woody debris from locations deemed to be at risk of entering a waterway within 11 months of the report being approved.

The company would also be required to engage an expert and prepare a report and map recommending the locations and designs for a proposed network of slash catchers.

Earlier this year Aratu announced it planned to be the first to install slash catchers in the region.

Aratu’s chief executive Neil Woods said the company was still working through the implications of the new application.

“Some of the timeframes proposed will be difficult to manage alongside the work we are already doing in Te Marunga Forest. So dates need to be achievable and sustainable to ensure the safety of our hard-working team of local staff and contractors,” he said.

The 9000 hectare Te Marunga Forest, near Tolaga Bay, was the subject of another enforcement order application by the council this year, which was initially opposed by Aratu, but later agreed to by consent. The order was made by the Environment Court this week.