The history of the West Coast is one of boom and bust. Such fluctuations in fortune are the lot of local economies based on extractive industries. To escape a similar fate, major political parties tend to avoid policy extremes, especially, in the lead-up to an election. Occasionally, however, it happens,
Editorial: Clearing up native trees best solution
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Green Party's Eugenie Sage. Photo / NZ Herald
Cyclone Ita felled an estimated 20,000ha of forest and caused significant damage to a further 200,000ha. In all probability, only a small part of that will be removed. Nonetheless, hundreds of jobs will be created both in the logging and the processing of the timber. That, and the safeguards, mean the public good associated with exploitation far outweighs any concerns about the impact of the logging.
Nor is the protection of native forest being compromised. That Labour and the Greens declined to see as much suggested they were concerned about more than just the felled timber. Several references to the conservation battles that culminated in a halt to the logging of these forests confirmed as much. Probably, they worried that the exploitation of the timber without dire consequence being the cue for the resumption of selective logging.
There is no suggestion of that. Felled timber is being removed from low-grade conservation land for a limited period. Nothing more. This is surely a practical response to an event dictated by nature, and one that benefits one of the country's least prosperous regions.