For as long as I can remember, farming and forestry have gone hand-in-hand. In fact, there was a huge push, back in the 80s for farmers to invest heavily in forestry but now the chickens have come to roost.  

Federated Farmers is now calling on the government to establish an independent inquiry into the factors that contributed to the flooding and destroyed infrastructure from ex-tropical cyclone Hale.

The tragedy now is that every time there’s a rain event more ‘slash’ is washing down throughout The East Cape causing incredible damage and exponential costs for farmers and ultimately the forestry industry.  

There are farmers along The East Cape who’ve just about lost the will to carry on and are seriously considering shutting the farm gate and walking away. That’s how bad the situation has got.  

The problem goes back as far as 1988, when Cyclone Bola came to town, and consequently, thousands of hectares of trees were planted on some pretty dubious farming land with the intention of stabilising the precarious area.

Now those trees are being harvested, exposing the slopes like the after effects of a bomb site.  

Federated Farmers are taking this to the top, and they’ve written letters to emergency management, forestry, and government ministers in the hope that they can get some form of resolution.  

This may not be a major issue in the sights of the current government, but it needs to be. If our primary industries are so important to our economic future, then we need to make sure everything is done to keep them sustainable.  

The destruction incurred after clear felling might be called slash, but it also spells the end of farming for some - and the forestry industry needs to take full responsibility for its actions and consequences.  

It might be hard to see the wood for the ‘slash’, but there’s plenty more upstream yet to make its way downstream.  

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