Forestry slash back at beaches

Forestry waste has again flooded the beaches of Tolaga Bay.

A video of a log-covered Tolaga Bay beach was shared widely on social media yesterday.

A storm hit the district on Queen’s Birthday weekend 2018, washing over 40,000 cubic metres of wood onto beaches.

‘‘We had 300 millimetres [of rain] up there over the weekend and a total new amount of wood has come down,’’ local farmer Henry Gaddum said.

Gisborne district councillor Kerry Warsnop said the slashlittered beach was the ‘‘new normal’’. She said there was consensus in the community that this was what Tolaga Bay beach would look like for the foreseeable future. Heavy rainfall was common in the region. The rain, combined with soft sedimentary soil, meant that any slash – or forestry waste – left on the hills that could be washed away ended up in the sea, and was pushed back onto the beach, she said.

Gisborne District Council director of environmental services and protection, Helen Montgomery, said it took the matter seriously and was investigating reports of the slash being washed up.

Forest Owners Association spokesman Don Carson said the most recent deposit didn’t come from recent harvests but was old slash from the 2018 event . The sector was working to improve practices to prevent it happening in the future. It could not control the weather but could control harvesting practices.