forestry industry

We’ll start this morning with the Government’s inquiry into slash, and the damning recommendations that found that production forestry should be banned in extreme erosion zones around Wairoa and Gisborne. Limits should be introduced around how much of a forest can be felled in a single year. And when it's spelled out like that, why would you need an inquiry to tell you? It just makes common sense, doesn't it? Production forestry should be banned in extreme erosion zones.

Well, yeah.

And limits should be introduced around how much of a forest can be felled in a single year. Again, even those of us without any experience in forestry would say, well, yeah, that makes common sense.

The Government, of course, commissioned the inquiry into land use and forestry slash after Cyclone Gabriel, concentrating on the Wairoa and Tairāwhiti Gisborne regions.  As you'll remember —and those shocking, shocking photos showed— severe slips and erosion during the cyclone resulted in the woody debris and silt washing onto land and down waterways into those regions, causing significant damage.

But it wasn't the first rodeo for many of the people who own farms and land in the areas around the forest. They have been battered, quite literally, by slash for years and have been asking for something to be done about forestry in those areas for years. There is nothing new in this.

A second pre budget announcement yesterday as well saw 10.5 million earmarked for the clean-up of forestry slash and other woody debris in Tairāwhiti and Hawkes Bay. There's 70,000 tons of the stuff and rivers and catchment areas on the East Coast. Forestry Minister Peeni Henare says the clean-up effort needs to start straight away.

Well, really it needed to start three months ago. Hello Red Cross, anybody there? Anybody? That would have made a small dint in getting it cleaned up, but no? Nobody? Still going to hold on to that money?

So I would love to hear from people of the region, those involved in forestry as well, because so many areas around the country have been planted out in pine and as we can see, there is the possibility that where it's planted in the wrong place, it's going to cause huge problems.

Interestingly, this was supposed to be the solution to a problem. Because when Cyclone Bola swept through Gisborne causing so much damage, or swept through New Zealand but impacted the Tairāwhiti Gisborne area greatly. The erosion there caused huge amounts of problems where the land had been clear felled of Native forest for farming. And so the answer to that was, hey, let's put Pine Forest in there and that'll hold the hills together, and that'll keep the soil together and it will also provide employment for so many people in the area who would otherwise have to leave to look for work.

So this was supposed to be a solution to an obvious problem. It's turned out to be a bigger problem than ever.

Where does it leave the future of forestry in this country? Is there still a place for it?

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An independent review into land use in Tairawhiti is now locked in.

Ex-cyclone Hale left waterways and beaches littered with forest debris and slash a month ago.

A forum meeting involving central and local Government, iwi, industry and Federated Farmers reached an agreement to investigate yesterday.

Toby Williams from Federated Farmers says it'll be a review into harvesting practices and an opportunity to give foresters the tools to make changes ahead of the next big rain event.

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Nearly nine-thousand locals have signed a petition calling for a massive overhaul of forestry across Tairāwhiti.

Beaches, farms, waterways, and homes have been covered in woody debris from ex-Tropical cyclone Hale this month.

A boy died on Wednesday after falling from a log on Waikanae Beach and hitting his head.

Petition organiser Manu Caddie says that most of the region is feeling great frustration.

He says many local councillors agree that an inquiry is needed.

Caddie says it would offer an opportunity for locals to have a say, to find out the root causes, and what can be done about it.

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For as long as I can remember, farming and forestry have gone hand-in-hand. In fact, there was a huge push, back in the 80s for farmers to invest heavily in forestry but now the chickens have come to roost.  

Federated Farmers is now calling on the government to establish an independent inquiry into the factors that contributed to the flooding and destroyed infrastructure from ex-tropical cyclone Hale.

The tragedy now is that every time there’s a rain event more ‘slash’ is washing down throughout The East Cape causing incredible damage and exponential costs for farmers and ultimately the forestry industry.  

There are farmers along The East Cape who’ve just about lost the will to carry on and are seriously considering shutting the farm gate and walking away. That’s how bad the situation has got.  

The problem goes back as far as 1988, when Cyclone Bola came to town, and consequently, thousands of hectares of trees were planted on some pretty dubious farming land with the intention of stabilising the precarious area.

Now those trees are being harvested, exposing the slopes like the after effects of a bomb site.  

Federated Farmers are taking this to the top, and they’ve written letters to emergency management, forestry, and government ministers in the hope that they can get some form of resolution.  

This may not be a major issue in the sights of the current government, but it needs to be. If our primary industries are so important to our economic future, then we need to make sure everything is done to keep them sustainable.  

The destruction incurred after clear felling might be called slash, but it also spells the end of farming for some - and the forestry industry needs to take full responsibility for its actions and consequences.  

It might be hard to see the wood for the ‘slash’, but there’s plenty more upstream yet to make its way downstream.  

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Welcome to the Voices of Forestry! Join host Seth Stephenson, the communications coordinator for the Arkansas Forestry Association, as he sits down with AFA's Executive Vice President Max Braswell to discuss what AFA's role in the forestry industry is and how things have changed over the past decade.

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For more information about the Arkansas Forestry Association visit arkforests.org.