No legal action over Gita-related damage
The Tasman District Council will not take legal action against forestry companies in the wake of damage from ex-Tropical Cyclone Gita.
‘‘In our case, there were no offences that would warrant any enforcement action against any forestry company,’’ said council environment and planning manager Dennis Bush-King.
His comments come after news that the Gisborne District Council has started prosecutions against ‘‘a number of parties’’ under the Resource Management Act. The prosecutions relate to six different forests in the Gisborne region, including three near Tolaga Bay.
Debris, including forestry slash, covered pockets of Tasman district after Gita hit in February. In the Gisborne region, slash – scrap timber, branches and offcuts – crashed through some houses near Tolaga Bay over Queen’s Birthday weekend in June.
Bush-King said the Tasman council was ‘‘not privy to the circumstances or what has led to the decision behind Gisborne District Council taking action’’.
The Tasman council was dealing with wide-ranging effects from storm damage after Gita ‘‘and responded accordingly, including surveys of forest estates’’.
‘‘There was no formal compliance investigations initiated, as there was no evidence of any offending on the part of the forest companies that would warrant them,’’ Bush-King said.
‘‘Slope failures occurred in all areas of exotic and indigenous [forest], and there was little evidence of platforms, tracks and crossings failing in forestry blocks as a result of inaction or poor practices.’’
He added that even if a case could be made, the council could not follow the same path as the Gisborne council because there was a six-month limitation period ‘‘and we would be outside that time frame’’.
The Gisborne council might have a different consenting regime, Bush-King said. ‘‘Harvesting in Tasman did not require a resource consent at the time.’’ However, the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF) came into effect in May, and the Tasman council was ‘‘gearing up’’ to monitor forestry-based activities in the district.
‘‘[The] council has employed a fulltime officer to meet its obligations under the NES-PF, and this officer is now establishing a full monitoring programme,’’ Bush-King said.
That programme would include receiving and assessing all harvest management plans as well as conducting pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest site visits to monitor permitted activities associated with earthworks, crossings, quarrying and harvesting.