Weather bombs, forestry & farming
Friday 6 May 2022
When it rains in Biblical portions, bad
things happen – Noah knows! More
so, when your underlying rock is soft
and unstable - a metre of rain in one
month will inevitably create casualties.
And that’s about the sum of March in
Northern Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti on the East Coast of New Zealand.
All on the heels of the outrage which
dominated headlines when a similar
deluge two years back caused Tolaga
Bay to be hit by logs and forestry
debris.
Then, no question about it,
forestry was culpable and so the
industry apologised and backed this
by cleaning the beaches.
This time, the picture is not so simple.
It is not so much wood that is coming
off the hills but rather the soil.
And for the most part it is not
coming from forestry land.
While any mobile debris is bad debris,
the latest extreme weather has provided us with confidence that
we are on the right track, that the
changes we are implementing
are helping.
What is noticeable here is that
much of the woody debris is poplar,
willow and other species of trees
not associated with pine forests.
And again, while not always visibly
confronting, everywhere there are
rivers of silt, the productive and
environmental cost of which
is massive.
Perversely, much of the problem
identified with forestry is from forests
created under the ‘East Coast
Project’ back in the 1970’s. When a
zealous government asked its forest
service to acquire whole farms and
blanket plant them - pine being the
obvious choice as it establishes
easily, grows well, and provides a
versatile and valued commodity.
Besides stemming soil loss another
objective was to use forestry as a
vector for regional development in an
otherwise lagging East Coast.
We knew then that once established,
pines would look after the soil,
in all but the wettest times when
everything is vulnerable.
And we are working hard to reduce
the chances of immediate postharvest
debris flows too.
Obviously, with the wisdom of
hindsight some areas should not
have been planted with commercial
intent. This has been taken on board
by forestry companies who now are
viewing smaller harvesting coups,
not replanting at all on very unstable
areas and leaving riparian strips
everywhere.
We also expect less soil disturbance
in a second rotation forest as much
of the roading and harvesting
infrastructure was developed the
first-time round.
But that’s all ahead of us and in the
meantime, we will work with what we
have got. The forests have a finite life
span; weather keeps on getting more
erratic and to do nothing, is foolish.
That given, it is not reasonable to
expect the industry to completely
plug the debris leaks. But we can
and are always looking to do better.
One can only hope that farming in
Northern Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti
is on a similar trajectory with siltation,
because that matters too.
Source: Keith Dolman, CEO, Hawkes Bay Forestry Group
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