The Gisborne District Council remains tight-lipped on the outcome of a mediation meeting this week with forestry parties over the recovery of a Te Araroa forestry site staff and experts described as "one of the worst" they had seen.
By Imogen Brophy for Local Democracy Reporting
The site is the focus of council action relating to the clean-up of slash and debris.
An environmental commissioner facilitated the meeting after the council applied for enforcement orders against Summit Forests NZ, associated parties and directors over consent conditions on an East Cape forest this year.
Summit is one of the country’s largest commercial forest owners, with forests in Northland, Coromandel, Whanganui and Gisborne.
It oversaw the harvest of Awatere forest, a 390ha pine forest on Awatere Station, which is on Māori freehold land and is managed by Awatere B Trust.
Ngāri Porou Forests Ltd was appointed to harvest the site between 2018 and 2021.
A draft enforcement order against Summit, New Zealand-based Summit director Kenji Okawa, Ngāti Porou Forests Ltd, its five directors and the trust was made in May this year.
A Summit spokesperson said substantial remedial work had been done since a meeting this year.
"We’re hoping for constructive engagement from all the parties to agree on how to work together to finish the remaining work."
A council spokesperson said the meeting took place this week, but the council could not comment on the mediation or outcome because of the confidential process.
A further update about this proceeding was expected in due course, it said.
Council inspections find poor harvest practice
The enforcement order application proposes Summit removes slash and woody debris at risk of entering waterways from streams and hillsides in high-risk areas by March 31 next year and other areas by May 31.
The trust would be required to provide the council with a native vegetation plan to address retired pine sites by September 30 this year and remove all existing pine trees from the site by May 1 next year.
Ongoing remedial works would take place until July 2031.
Court documents showed the trust and the council had raised concerns about compliance issues since 2021.
An independent risk assessment of the site in 2021 found several shortcomings, including poor water control, slash management and trees felled near protected waterways.
After the assessment, Summit told the trust it would complete all harvest and clean-up work by the end of June 2021.
Council inspections in 2022 found compliance issues with drainage and slash management, which remained outstanding until Summit requested a council visit this year this year to discuss remedial works.
Council staff and an independent expert visited the site for an aerial assessment in January and a ground inspection in February after bad weather left Te Araroa looking like a "warzone".
Inspections found significant skid site and roading collapses, causing sediment and woody debris to enter rivers, including those flowing into the Awatere River.
The Awatere River runs through the Awatere Forest site before reaching the sea south of Te Araroa township.
Council staff and an independent expert found the forest "in an extremely poor state", describing it as "one of the worst sites" experts had ever seen.
The council said post-harvest work was of a poor standard and that waterway controls, discarded wire ropes and unstable slash sites meant consent conditions were not met.
It said "the current environmental problems at Awatere B Forest are directly related to poor harvesting and engineering practices", and immediate remediation work was needed to prevent further sediment and woody debris damage.
In March, Summit received a letter outlining shortcomings in harvesting practises at the site before the council issued a draft enforcement order in May.
The naming of directors in the enforcement order prompted Summit’s Okawa to write to Minister for Regulation David Seymour.
Okawa outlined his concern that the enforcement had become a template across the region and could personally expose directors to issues that may have occurred years before their appointment.
He said he did not have an issue with environmental regulation itself.
Seymour wrote to the council in May, telling it to consider "future prosperity when considering the deployment of blunt force enforcement tools".
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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