Forestry company facing numerous charges

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A forestry company is yet to signal whether it will own or defend accusations it committed numerous environmental offences while harvesting Papakorokoro Forest, near Ngakoroa Road.

Forwood Forest Management Limited and its director, Matthew Strijbosch, each face 11 representative charges for alleged poor harvesting practices that came to light after storm events in March of last year. They are being prosecuted by Gisborne District Council.

Two streams running through the forest were said to have been significantly impacted as a result of the offending.

Charges brought under the Resource Management Act allege Forwood unlawfully cleared vegetation from a riparian management area; disturbed the Mangaruaki Stream by creating a crossing with culverts and fill; constructed a road and skid site in a red zone at the forest; and discharged trees, forest harvesting debris, and sediment directly into the Mangaoai Stream and on to land where it could reach the stream.

The council says none of those activities were permissible either by consents previously issued to Forwood, or by national environmental standards, regulations in a regional plan, or in a proposed regional plan.

The case was called briefly during a registrar’s list in Gisborne District Court on Monday but further adjourned without plea at the company’s request. It will be called again on July 17, when pleas are expected to be entered.

The alleged offending, between December 2021, and April last year, is said to have adversely affected the Mangaoai and Mangaruaki streams, which run through the forest.

Forwood is one of three forestry companies the council has moved to prosecute this year. During February, two other forestry companies and their directors were also charged for alleged breaches of resource consents brought to light by storm events last March.

The defendants in those cases are Samnic Forest Management Ltd, its directors Richard Hayes, Scotty Barry Funnell and Gavin Francis Fortune; Forest Management Solutions (FMS) and its director Warren Peter Hughes.

Samnic and FMS are each charged with discharging contaminants — sediment and forestry waste — on to land in circumstances where it entered or could enter water, and for failing to comply with restrictions on land use.