Forestry rates treatment also ‘screws the land use scrum’
Until a recent visit to Gisborne, it was the carbon credits factor that Federated Farmers President Andrew Hoggard had thought was ‘‘screwing the land use scrum’’ in favour of plantation forestry.
‘‘There is that for sure but to be honest I didn’t fully appreciate there’s a whole bunch of other things also tilting the playing field, not least the council rating impacts.’’
Andrew was in the province to give an address at the East Coast Expo and spent the next day with Gisborne-Wairoa Feds President Toby Williams, local executive members and farmers including Hamish Cave and Nicki and Bruce Jefferd hearing their concerns about forestry swallowing farmland.
First stop was Tologa Bay, where forestry slash from the June 2018 storm still litters the beach despite a number of cleanups.
‘‘Looking out to the hills it hits you how all this slash and debris is funnelled down and creates holy hell further down the river.’’
The Federated Farmers provincial executive and others in the community have been consistently pushing the message that total de-nuding of hillsides just isn’t acceptable. They want selective harvesting practices to become the norm so there are
trees left to hold up slash.
‘‘There are not that many roads and bridges in the district and let’s face it, the province gets a fair share of storms and even earthquakes in recent month,’’ Andrew says. ‘‘If you get a few bridges taken out by slash and debris, suddenly you have rural people and farming businesses stranded for long periods.’’
While Feds notched a win with the local council in terms of a
roading differential for forestry companies that will see them pay a fairer share for the ‘‘constant procession’’ of heavy logging trucks, there’s still a serious issue on the general rates front.
‘‘If someone buys a sheep and beef farm and plants it in pines, because it’s forestry land it’s eligible for lower rates. Yet the forestry companies are outbidding those who would keep it in farming.
‘‘If someone wants to plant trees, then so be it. But the land must be able to generate equal returns for land purchases to go that way, so why do the rating costs go down?’’
With forestry paying less, the district’s rating base is undermined, and councils turn to farmers and others to make up the lost revenue. That makes farming as an economic proposition harder to justify.
‘‘It’s a vicious circle and together with various government policies, it tilts things in favour of forestry.’’
Andrew says the same sorts of issues are arising in the likes of Wanganui, the central North Island and the Wairarapa.
More recently Andrew headed for Southland where, hardly surprisingly, the big issue was winter grazing. But one farmer got fairly animated with him, with a long list of arguments he felt Federated Farmers should be hammering on climate change.
‘‘I was pleased to be able to tell him that every single one of the arguments he raised featured in our submissions on the Zero Carbon Act and the Climate Change Commission’s draft recommendations to government, and any number of newspaper columns I’d written.
‘‘Sometimes I just want to say to those who wonder why they haven’t heard from Feds on a subject ‘Google is your friend’. Google up whatever topic you’re concerned about, add Federated Farmers, and chances are you’ll find we’ve been active in that space.’’
But Andrew says he appreciated the chance to talk to the Southland farmers first hand ‘‘and to see their green grass – the lucky buggers!’’.