“References were made (by Ms Castle) to previous contractors being partly to blame for the offending, staff not being up to scratch, and an upstream blockage in another company’s forest that has later given way,” he said.
Chief Environment Court Judge David Kirkpatrick agreed with Mr Hopkinson that there was a need for the court to send “a strong deterrent message” to all forestry companies that there would be “serious economic consequences” for offenders.
Companies can be fined up to $600,000 for this type of offending. Mr Hopkinson submitted a starting point of about $120,000 which, after discounts, could result in an end fine of about $84,000. Ms Castle sought a starting point of about $80,000.
The judge reserved his decision as to the penalty but said he hoped to deliver it “soon”.
During the hearing, Judge Kirkpatrick raised a concern that parties that must have contributed to offending were escaping prosecution.
“I feel that possibly the deterrence message is not getting through and that, as you say, others — more by good luck than good management — are avoiding the consequences of some of that behaviour.”
Mr Hopkinson said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone else in this case. Council had focussed its prosecution, as it had in other cases, on the person with the most overall control of operations.
Judge Kirkpatrick said, “We can’t solve it in relation to this sentencing but it is just something for us to think about and for the council perhaps to consider whether there are other ways in which better behaviour could be obtained more widely across the industry.”
Like directors charged alongside forest companies in other previous prosecutions, Forwood director Matthew Strijbosch was ultimately relieved of the charges against him leaving the company solely liable.
In an affidavit, Mr Strijbosch said that while it didn’t excuse what happened, he had personal issues that had made it hard to keep on top of the company’s daily operations.
Forwood previously pleaded guilty to 11 charges under the Resource Management Act arising from its poor management of forest harvesting and associated earthworks activities at Papakorokoro Forest — a 287 hectare plantation located on Ngakoroa Road, about 12km from SH2 and about 30km northwest of Gisborne.
The charges related to three categories of offending between December 2021 and June 2022 — unlawful harvesting activity in the Mangaoai Stream; unlawful and non-compliant earthworks on a boundary track and a skid site; and the installation of an unlawful stream crossing and culverts in the Mangaruaki Stream.
It involved the unlawful clearing of a riparian management area; stream beds being disturbed and polluted with contaminants and forest harvesting debris, and unlawful construction work on some of the region’s steepest and most erosion- prone land.
Potential effects of the unlawful stream crossing in the Mangaruaki Stream became actual effects after Cyclone Gabrielle.
None of the activities was allowed either by consents issued to Forwood, national environmental standards, or regional plans, Mr Hopkinson said. The consent holder was Greenheart Papakorokoro Ltd but harvest manager FFM was responsible for ensuring compliance.
The offending was aggravated by the fact Mr Strijbosch had been told four times in 2021 of the council’s concerns about FFM’s poor forestry and harvesting practices at Papakorokoro. The company was therefore on notice that it was failing in its obligations, Mr Hopkinson said.
Virtually all of its forest was red zoned and it would have been aware the region was known for heavy rainfalls. So FFM needed to take particular care in its harvesting operations.
There were already concerns about the health of the Mangaoai Stream — a tributary of the Waipaoa River — and ongoing health monitoring of it to ensure forest operations weren’t negatively impacting it was required by a consent condition.
Furthermore, the company was in the business of carrying out commercial harvesting reliant on resource consents and its offending involved a number of breaches of those consents.
The breaches “undermined the very basis on which consents had been granted”, Mr Hopkinson said.
The company’s offending, particularly the shovelling of logs in the Mangaoai Stream bed, breached its own industry’s code of environmental practice, which stated: “Do not use waterways as an extraction corridor or route; keep machinery out of waterways and riparian margins unless authorised, use appropriate felling and extraction techniques to minimise impact in sensitive areas; if unacceptable effects are unavoidable then consider leaving trees standing or fell them to waste.”
Sediment pollution was cumulative and arguably more serious than that caused by logs and debris. Yet because it was unseen, it seldom got media attention, Mr Hopkinson said. Sediment was the most pervasive pollutant in New Zealand waterways and its build-up could do significant long-term damage to them and coastal marine areas.
Sampling carried out in the Mangaoai Stream three months after the offending showed “very high levels” of suspended solids downstream.
For the company, Ms Castle said FFM believed it had remedied the council’s concern over the skid site and boundary road and had not heard anything more about it ahead of the prosecution.
When it came to the culverts, Forwood was “carrying the can” for a previous user who had installed a culvert in the wrong place. When it blew out in a storm, Forwood replaced and improved it with smaller twin culverts, albeit unknowingly in the wrong place. Forwood had prioritised sorting out a concerning slash build-up across the boundary, in neighbouring Aratu Forest, when the culvert was washed out again in another storm. Because it had gone, no further action was taken in respect of an earlier abatement notice.
Ms Castle agreed with the council that the most serious offence was the work done with machines in the Mangaoai Stream. She said it was carried out by Greenheart’s staff but FFM did not shy away from being ultimately responsible.
Read More: https://www/gisborneherald.co.nz/news/forestry-company-pleads-guilty-to11-charges
https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/forestry-company-facing-numerous-charges
https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/rma-breaches-alleged-at-ngakoroa-road-forest
