Forestry company fined $112,500 for evironmental breaches near Waihi
Convictions and fines totalling $112,500 have been imposed on a logging company for repeated environmental damage on a farm near Wahi between August 2022 and October 2023.
Red meat farmers want the Government to urgently commit to road repairs in isolated Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti farming communities.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) chief executive Sam McIvor says cyclone-ravaged roads, particularly to remote properties, and the level of devastation caused by forestry slash are farmers’ main concerns.
“The scale of damage cannot be understated,” he says.
McIvor recently visited Hawke’s Bay farmers in Ōtāne, Rissington, and Glengarry, before travelling to Tolaga Bay, and Ruatōria, and video calling other Tairawhiti farmers in Pehiri, Wharekōpae, Hangaroa and Rere.
“Many of the farmers I have spoken to are completely cut off and there is a small window of four to six weeks to move stock in and out of their properties. For some isolated farmers that window is shorter,” he says.
“There is a significant number of lambs that need to be moved off properties for processing or as store, and beef weaner sales aren’t far away.
“It’s critical that the Government prioritises roading infrastructure to these remote areas and repairs must be robust enough for stock trucks and machinery to restore farm tracks.”
McIvor says he was shocked by the damage caused by forestry slash throughout the East Coast and insisted the Ministerial Inquiry must prevent this from ever happening again.
“People have lost their homes because of slash-induced flooding. Other people I have spoken to have had valuable farming land on the flats destroyed by forestry slash and silt,” he says.
“One farmer calculated it would cost $3,000 per hectare to restore valuable flats and infrastructure back to production.”
McIvor says farmers are working hard to restore farm infrastructure, tracks, fences and water systems, but the impact of forestry slash will be felt for a long time.
“It has destroyed countless kilometres of fencing, a significant number of bridges, valuable crops, blocked access to farms, and damaged farm infrastructure that will take farmers years to rebuild.
“Farmers face significant costs in reinstating land and infrastructure, as well as lost income and loss of land value.
“They are also worried that this could happen again with the Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme and foreign investment settings allowing for large areas of food producing land to be converted into carbon price induced forestry. The Ministerial Inquiry must be thorough.”
McIvor says it is critical that farming communities have their say after experiencing the devastating impacts of poor policy.
The B+LNZ Havelock North office has been repurposed as a response hub for the Hawke’s Bay Rural Advisory Group (RAG), which includes B+LNZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Rural Support Trust, Federated Farmers, DairyNZ, Fonterra, and rural communities.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
Alliance has announced a series of capital raise roadshow event, starting on 29 September in Tuatapere, Southland.
OPINION: Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
State farmer Pāmu (Landcorp) has announced a new equity partnership in an effort to support pathways to farm ownership for livestock farm operators.
Following a recent overweight incursion that saw a Mid-Canterbury contractor cop a $12,150 fine, the rural contracting industry is calling time on what they consider to be outdated and unworkable regulations regarding weight and dimensions that they say are impeding their businesses.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says his officials plan to meet their US counterparts every month from now on to better understand how the 15% tariff issue there will play out, and try and get some certainty there for our exporters about the future.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.