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.
The Hound reckons news that an Austrian billionaire has been granted consent to purchase an $8m Hill Country farm, is living proof that the NZ First’s billion tree policy is a disaster for farming in this country.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has granted Wolfgang Leitner consent to buy the 800ha property located in Kotemaori, Wairoa and convert it to forestry.
The property known as Ponui Station currently has 714ha being grazed by sheep and beef stock. Leitner plans to plant a further 640ha of commercial forest, it currently has just 14ha of existing commercial forestry.
According to the real estate listing the farm is described as “clean, healthy country, sought after scale, and opportunity to extend farm capability.”
Meanwhile, this isn’t Leitner’s first farm purchase in NZ, having been granted consent to buy the $4.5m, 489ha Ngapuke Station in Gisborne last September.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.