{"id":607023,"date":"2026-09-21T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607023\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:18:13","slug":"tairawhitis-beaches-overrun-with-forestry-slash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607023\/","title":{"rendered":"Tair\u0101whiti’s beaches overrun with forestry slash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tair\u0101whiti’s beaches overrun with forestry slash <\/p>\n

Tair\u0101whiti’s beaches are some of the most well-known and loved in New Zealand, only now they’re covered in forestry slash. It’s so normal that some children have never known the sandy shores in their r\u014dhe without it. Teuila Fuatai reports.<\/p>\n

Graeme Atkins lives about 30 minutes from Ruatoria, near the mouth of Waiapu River and Tikapa beach.<\/p>\n

The hilly, gravel road to his house runs alongside the Waiapu, and on a clear day, you get a full view of the lower part of the expansive waterway. It’s wide and shallow, with the riverbed showing in a lot of places. Steep, stony hillside where the road is cut into run along one side while farmland borders the other.<\/p>\n

Atkin’s house, like all the properties around him, is off the grid. That includes the local marae, which runs on solar and has a chest freezer wh\u0101nau around the area use for meat.<\/p>\n

Being self-sufficient, living off the land, and the moana, is part of life, and it’s been that way for generations, Atkins says.<\/p>\n

“You don’t see any power lines here,” he says with a grin.<\/p>\n

One of his three mokopuna, one-year-old Te Ahupo, hangs out with us for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Atkins says he’ll be the 22nd generation of his family to whakapapa to the area.<\/p>\n

“So that’s such a comforting thought.”<\/p>\n

\"Graeme<\/p>\n

Graeme Atkins.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Less hopeful, and infinitely more challenging is what’s happening with forestry in the region.<\/p>\n

We head a couple of hundred metres up the road to look at Tikapa beach.<\/p>\n

Like all the beaches we’ve seen on our trip around the East Cape, it’s covered in forestry waste.<\/p>\n

The slash and woody debris are washed down from forestry blocks when it rains, and when there’s a major weather event – like cyclones Gabrielle<\/a> and Hale in 2023 – the waterways, rivers and coastline are choked with it.<\/p>\n

Atkins shows us pictures and videos of the beach after the storm – at first glance, it looks like someone’s emptied dozens of boxes of match sticks onto a surface and taken a photo.<\/p>\n

That’s what came down the river, he says.<\/p>\n

Another video shows k\u014dura and paua littered among the slash and logs.<\/p>\n

They are another casualty of what’s happening on the forestry blocks, Atkins says, because when there’s a storm, along with the trees and waste, huge amounts of soil and sediment go into the waterways and sea.<\/p>\n

“I think they just get choked,” he says, “it’s heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n

Atkins says they first started to notice the slash on the beaches about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

“Our childhood around here, and the access to the beach – we could go to the beach whenever we wanted to.<\/p>\n

“Since about 2014, 2015, once they started harvesting inside those Cyclone Bola forests\u2026we just started noticing more and more forest waste – slash, logs, whatever you want to call it – ending up on our beach.”<\/p>\n

Cyclone Bola, which devastated the region in 1988, is mentioned in every conversation I have about forestry impacts in Tair\u0101whiti.<\/p>\n

Like Gabrielle and Hale, the weather event had significant and long-lasting impacts on the region.<\/p>\n

For hundreds of mana whenua like Atkins, who are shareholders in land blocks across their r\u014dhe through whakapapa, it also triggered a fundamental shift in the use of that land to pine forest plantations.<\/p>\n

The pine planting frenzy post-Cyclone Bola<\/p>\n

About 40 minutes up the cost from Atkin’s place is the Whakaangiangi Valley, near Te Araroa.<\/p>\n

We meet Roger Haerewa at his house, which looks out at several forestry blocks dominating the valley. He points to the Awatere block, which he used to be a trustee of, and talks about how things were in the area after Cyclone Bola.<\/p>\n

\"Awatere<\/p>\n

The view from Roger Haerewa’s house.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

“Bola left a lot of damage on our whenua – huge slips,” he says, “and forestry at the time was the way to solve it.<\/p>\n

“I was on Awatere and Tarere at the time when we planted it. We thought it was a good idea… for future work.”<\/p>\n

Haerewa is describing the push into pine plantations the government incentivised at the time.<\/p>\n

The policies, implemented through the East Coast Forestry Project, sought to stem erosion across the region, particularly on steep hillsides through the planting of pine. The jobs and industry that would result were promoted as a twin-benefit.<\/p>\n

Not only have the benefits not eventuated, but M\u0101ori landowners have also been disproportionately affected because of the kind of land that was targeted through incentives.<\/p>\n

By the late 1980s, much of the land which remained in M\u0101ori ownership in Tair\u0101whiti was classified as marginal – essentially it was too steep to do much with like farming. Planting it with pine was seen as an investment, Haerewa says.<\/p>\n

\"Roger<\/p>\n

Roger Haerewa.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Now, it’s not just the forestry waste and erosion that’s causing harm and concern, there’s serious questions over the financial viability of harvesting pine – with the price of logs down over the decades and the costs of transporting them to Gisborne climbing.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, we’ve still got forests that should have been cut, but we can’t cut it because the owners would get nothing,” he says.<\/p>\n

‘The messaging I’m receiving now is that we are doing too much’<\/p>\n

Gisborne District Council is the regulatory body for the forestry industry. It’s trying to forge a path to more sustainable land use across the region with the tools it has under the Resource Management Act.<\/p>\n

Mayor Rehette Stoltz admits it’s a work-in-progress.<\/p>\n

Since cyclones Gabrielle and Hale, the council’s taken a tougher approach in its consenting and monitoring processes for the forestry industry. The shift followed a ministerial inquiry into the disasters and damage caused by forestry waste, woody debris and sediment in Tair\u0101whiti and Wairoa.<\/p>\n

It’s resulted in the council using enforcement orders – issued by the Environment Court against forestry companies – to target areas like poor harvesting practises and unmanaged slash.<\/p>\n

But that hasn’t come without setbacks.<\/p>\n

It’s been nearly a year since the council’s land transition business case was shot down by the central government. The council was asking for a $359 million contribution or co-investment over a decade to help stabilise the region’s most erosion-prone land.<\/p>\n

More recently, Stoltz has been contacted by several government ministers over her council’s approach to the forestry industry.<\/p>\n

Chris Bishop, the minister responsible for reform of the Resource Manage Act<\/a>, has also refused to grant the council an exemption to implement a plan change that would’ve enabled it to use more stringent rules to manage erosion-prone land through its consenting processes.<\/p>\n

\"Timber<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

“It’s tough,” Stoltz says.<\/p>\n

“After Cyclone Gabrielle, the [Ministerial inquiry] panel recommendations made it clear that we had to step up in the consenting, monitoring, and enforcement area.<\/p>\n

“The messaging I’m receiving now is that we are doing too much in that space, and it is tough for us because we do want to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

“What that that means for us is that the work that we’ve done in the last two to three years can’t really get traction, because we need a plan change to do that.”<\/p>\n

The uncertainty looming over its regulatory work has led to the council commissioning an independent review into its own consenting, compliance and enforcement practices. Alongside that, Forestry Minister Todd McClay’s appointed facilitator Doug Leeder to advise it on what’s happening with forestry in the region.<\/p>\n

Leeder’s a month into his contract and has met with both Stoltz and the council’s chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann. He’s also met with the council’s consenting, compliance and enforcement teams.<\/p>\n

He told Checkpoint there’s been a breakdown in the relationship between the council and the forestry industry.<\/p>\n

Diggers needed to clear forestry debris crowding<\/p>\n

“Essentially, there’s been a lack of trust. It has broken down between the regulator, being [Gisborne District Council] and the forestry companies.<\/p>\n

“But that’s just not forestry companies. It’s those mum and dad businesses, those family businesses that operate harvesting operations throughout the Gisborne Tair\u0101whiti area.”<\/p>\n

\"Slash<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Despite that, he doesn’t believe the council are being overzealous in its approach, and says the use of enforcement orders have been justified.<\/p>\n

“I think, on balance, enforcement orders have done their job, and it’s really brought focus to the forest companies to get their act together and clean up some of the stuff.”<\/p>\n

Leeder says he’s due to report to McClay on his progress by the end of the week.<\/p>\n

‘The nannies would be shocked at the condition the land’s been left in’<\/p>\n

Atkins, who’s been working with the council on its land transition case, says change has to happen now.<\/p>\n

He’s a member of Mana Taiao Tair\u0101whiti, a group pushing for sustainable land use in the region that was established after Gabrielle.<\/p>\n

“There’s a responsibility on us as kaitiaki to leave it in a better state for the generations to come.<\/p>\n

“That’s the underlying principles and how it operates around here. Kaitiakitanga is to be able to practice that on your own whenua – it doesn’t get any better than that.”<\/p>\n

He looks at his moko Te Ahupo and says the decisions made around the use of whenua by his predecessors were made with the best intentions. In hindsight, that just hasn’t worked out.<\/p>\n

“I reckon that the nannies that signed those blocks up, in good will and good faith – that they were going to provide employment and the whenua was going to be cared for – I reckon they’d be shocked if they saw the condition that the land has been left in.<\/p>\n

“When you fly around here and see all the damage to our whenua, and a lot of it is permanent damage because the land has gone right down to the base rock. Nothing’s going to grow on rock – we don’t want that.”<\/p>\n

\"Waiapu<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Now, it’s about shifting away from the practises which shouldn’t be happening so future generations have a chance to thrive on the land they belong to, Graeme says.<\/p>\n

“You know, there’s always going to be a place for forestry here, just not on that real steep land. And same with farming.<\/p>\n

“But we just have to change how we do things. I want my tamariki and their tamariki to be staying here too.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tair\u0101whiti’s beaches overrun with forestry slash Tair\u0101whiti’s beaches are some of the most well-known and loved in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-607023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}