Forestry field trip for ministerial appointments & advisors

22 September 2023

Eastland Wood Council provided a forestry field trip in conjunction with Aratu Forests and Forest Enterprises for the Ministerial appointments and ministerial advisors on Tuesday 19th September, 2023.

We thank our special guests; The Statutory Advisor – Michael Campbell, The Facilitator – Rachel Reese, MfE – Programme Director – llana Miller, MPI-TUR; Paul Burridge, Rob Griffiths and Jason Blair, for their time to visit with members of the Eastland Wood Council; Aratu Forests (Neil Woods), Ngati Porou Forests (Daniel Williams), PF Olsen (Pat Bethel), Forest Enterprises (Dan Fraser), Summit Forests (Warren Rance; Acting Chair of EWC) and EWC’s Philip Hope.

Forestry Field Trip

Neil Woods (Aratu Forests) led the field trip to Whakaroa Forest to show a range of mid-rotation age classes, the silviculture practices and the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle which caused landslides with tree stands.

Dan Fraser (Forest Enterprises) led the field trip to Emerald Hills to show catchment management practices implemented over the last 5 years of harvest. Management of harvest residues, what was effective, what was less effective and the challenges of harvesting in landslide-prone terrain.

Ministerial Appointments

We are so pleased to have the leadership and support of two very talented professionals who are assisted by highly skilled advisors from MfE and MPI-TUR:

The Statutory Advisor – Michael Campbell
The Facilitator Role – Rachel Reese

We acknowledge and are grateful for the expertise, skills and knowledge, Michael and Rachel bring to our region to guide and support the implementation of a number of important decisions made by the government in response to MILU.

The forestry industry is committed to building a strong relationship with Gisborne District Council.

We too are committed to a more consultative process going forward that informs plan change for Tairawhiti and involves all stakeholders, including; iwi, mana whenua, other land owners, the community and industry.

While our industry continues to undertake remediation work as the result of the cyclone/s, we can’t ignore the difficult environment we are dealing with in Tairāwhiti, the unique challenges this presents and the need to manage expectations, while we work together with our stakeholders on longer-term solutions.