Marlborough-based Green Party MP Steffan Browning has commented on the state of the Havelock estuary. An article in the Marlborough Express discussed the mud in Havelock Estuary and raised the question of the cause of the increased mud. Was it farming or forestry, or both? Sources: Stuff NZ, Marlborough Express
The article was reflecting on the reports commissioned by the Marlborough District Council (MDC) examining the increase in mud sediments from 2001 to 2014, effectively mapping its failure in managing the Pelorus and Kaituna catchments.
Mr Browning is chairman of a small group called Friends of Pelorus Estuary and they have met with the main local forestry company, Nelson Forests Ltd, and the council over the years to discuss and negotiate the excessive land disturbance and the effects of sedimentation on the estuary and Sounds fishery.
According to Mr Browning Nelson Forests managed to harvest one major slope facing Havelock more sensitively than normal to reduce aesthetic and landscape effects, but it has been business as usual on other slopes, with massive land disturbance through carving unnecessary tracks and developing huge skid sites.
Mr Browning says that farming through erosion and pugging contributes to the estuarine mud and need controls, but the massive pulses from forestry harvest operations are clearly the main recent Pelorus-Havelock sediment contribution.
As the Green Party forestry spokesman he has been trying to get stronger controls on sedimentation in the proposed National Environment Standard (plantation forestry) that MPI is consulting on.
Mr Browning claims the national standard was stalled until recently because of Cabinet and Treasury thinking the cost benefit ratio wouldn’t work for their foreign-dominated forestry friends.
Nelson Forests Ltd is foreign-owned like most large New Zealand forest companies.
About 50% of New Zealand pine the Forest Stewardship Council certifies forestry, but Mr Browning says that it appears to be poorly audited considering current land disturbance and steep slope harvesting practices. He says that the use of stewardship certification is pure greenwash until genuinely independent auditing occurs and strict compliance is enforced.
Mr Browning claims that MDC must take significant responsibility for the recent Havelock mud, from when it allowed forestry to have permitted activity status throughout the Pelorus Valley many years ago, meaning any slope could be planted ahead of harvest or roading plans.
He says the council failed again a few years ago, granting a region-wide harvest consent to Nelson Forests Ltd Forestry a key contributor to muddy waters without notification to the numerous neighbouring land owners, except DOC.
He says that landowners have had properties flooded and had water supplies washed out, herbicide contaminated and sediment choked. They have had to tolerate massive dust and trucking activity with little scope to reduce these effects because the council denied them a sensible notification or hearings process.
Mr Browning says the council has subsequently been reluctant to implement a plan change to correct its mess and operate in its local ratepayers’ interests, or save fisheries from forestry mud, because it has been waiting for government and the national standard, but also because its own forestry company has been one of the worst offenders, as evident through the Koromiko Valley.
Mr Browning claims that research about the effects of massive aquaculture on fisheries have also been parked, but the government and the council, along with the forestry companies, know the effects of sediments on fishery habitats and juvenile fish, and yet continue to allow the situation to continue.
