Jepson is formally pushing for his “Mangawhai and the Mangroves” documentary-style video to be loaded onto Kaipara District Council communication channels in a special formal notice of motion at today’s council meeting in Mangawhai.
The mayor commissioned the $8000 video and paid for it out of his own pocket.
“I commissioned it because there is so much misunderstanding of mangroves’ role in our marine ecosystem,” Jepson said.
Jepson wanted more than 20ha of the mangroves removed because he believed they were destroying the harbour and its biodiversity, including flounder and shellfish beds plus wading bird haunts and that mangroves were also filling in the channels.
Northland Regional Council (NRC) group manager regulatory Colin Dall said Northland mangroves were protected because they were indigenous, stabilised land and acted as floodwater buffer zones.
“I’ve got great belief in the community. Going way back when the Big Dig occurred, the people who were in Mangawhai could see what was going on and they could see that was what was happening.
“Yes, the bureaucracies, the Northland Regional Council and Department of Conservation and all those just didn’t want to know. Their attitude was ‘oh well, just leave it alone, that’s nature for you'.
“So I am a great believer in the future. People, if things come to a serious situation, they will react in exactly the same way.
“At the end of the day the community is about us, not about Northland Regional Council and Department of Conservation’s rules and regulations,” Pearson said.
Mangroves at Mangawhai continue to cause controversy. Photo / NZME
MHRS has a 35-year resource consent until 2048 to remove 35ha of harbour mangrove seedlings each year.
Former NRC chair, Mangawhai resident and pro-mangrove removal campaigner Mark Farnsworth said in the video that mangroves should be “controlled” in selected areas of the harbour flats.
Dall said in response to Pearson’s threat of community action that NRC had to follow up when the RMA and other legislation was not complied with.
“The regional rules for resource use in Northland have gone through a public process and everyone had an opportunity to be involved in the process and have their say on those rules, including community groups,” he said.
“These provisions were developed alongside many experts in the field over several years, including evidence being considered and the Environment Court and High Court.”
MRHS had been among those who’d had input into these.
DoC operations manager Whangārei Joel Lauterbach said in response to Pearson’s comments his organisation acknowledged Mangawhai’s historical activism in addressing local environmental challenges.
He also said any mangrove removal action or other environmental modifications had to comply with New Zealand’s legal framework including the RMA.
“Future proposals for mangrove removal must go through the proper resource consent process where DoC and potentially affected parties may provide input based on potential environmental impacts ...”
Mangawhai resident and New Zealand Fairy Tern convenor Heather Rogan was horrified to hear the tenor of Pearson’s comments around potential community action.
Rogan said the video presented only one side of the mangrove debate. She challenged some of its points of view.
She said MHRS had done a great job with sorting the Mangawhai spit when it was breached.
But she questioned its movement into mangrove management.
Rogan challenged the video’s representations around the positive effect on New Zealand fairy tern after getting rid of the harbour’s mangroves.
Mangawhai is New Zealand’s most significant fairy tern breeding site, with only 30 birds left in the wild. Eight of this season’s 10 New Zealand fairy tern nests are at Mangawhai.
