Forestry directors say court-ordered clean-up will make them bankrupt

Monday, 15 September 2025

Gisborne District Council obtained an enforcement order against two companies and four directors to get them to remove woody debris from a forest near Tolaga Bay.

One of the companies and its three directors have appealed the order and say they shouldn’t have to pay for an initial clean-up report until their appeal is heard their next month.

The High Court disagreed and dismissed their application for a stay of the enforcement order.

Three forestry company directors held personally responsible for ensuring that woody debris is cleaned up from a Gisborne forest say they face bankruptcy if the order is carried out.

Samnic Forest Management Ltd, and its directors Richard Hayes, Scott Funnell and Gavin Fortune are the subject of an enforcement order that requires them to address the threat posed by forestry slash and debris left on a 940 hectare block in the hills near Tolaga Bay.

Scenes at Samnic Forest observed by Gisborne District Council officers during an inspection on October 14, 2024.

The order, made by the Environment Court in July, also applies to the landowner Woodlett Investments Ltd, and its sole director, Duncan Woodhouse.

The order requires the companies and directors to ensure woody debris and sediment would not enter water and land outside the forest boundary.

The Samnic Waingaromia Forest Joint Venture, comprised of Samnic Forest Management Ltd (SFM) and 20 shareholder companies, was set up in 1993. Photographed is the cover of a prospectus.

The order also required the companies and directors to submit a risk assessment report and risk assessment map to Gisborne District Council by October 15.

But Samnic Forest Management and its directors Hayes, Funnell and Fortune have appealed the order, claiming that only Woodlett Investments Ltd. should be subject to it.

The enforcement orders relate to Samnic Forest, also known as Waingaromia Forest, a 940-hectare plantation pine forest located 45km north of Gisborne and 20km northwest of Tolaga Bay. The land is owned by Woodlett Investments Ltd.

Their appeal is set down to be heard in late October.

They have applied to the High Court for a stay until the appeal could be heard.

They argue that if they have to start paying for the reports before the appeal is heard they will face a “huge cost” that will probably result in their bankruptcy.

Their application for a stay was heard on the papers by Justice James MacGillivray, who said the directors’ evidence around facing bankruptcy was “slim, to say the least”.

The judge said the directors had provided no evidence of their financial position or the financial position of the company.

He noted that an estimated cost of the reports was $52,800, or $8800 for each of the six parties, and the bulk of the clean-up cost would be incurred after the appeal had been heard.

“If their appeal is successful, the Samnic parties will be relieved of the burden of contributing to the cost of that future work,” Justice MacGillivray said.

He said it would be unfair to Woodlett Investments, which wanted to get on with the clean-up, if Samnic and its directors did not contribute to the cost of the report.

“The remedial work must be carried out regardless of the outcome of the appeals… There is no sufficient basis to delay progressing inevitable work simply to avoid the need for Samnic to contribute to the initial cost of doing so,” the judge said.

He declined the application for a stay.