BOP Regional Council – Forestry Liaison Group | Meeting Summary

Held 28 February 2024 at the BOP Regional Council with 22 attendees.

The meeting received presentations from:

Rafael Moradei the Forestry Supply Manager for FORESTA

Using sustainable forestry resources including stumps, older unpruned lots, old man pines, shelterbelts, and commercial forests to manufacture torrefied pellets and wood-based chemicals as a direct replacement for coal and petrochemicals.

For more information go to – www.foresta.nz

David Herries the Chief Technology & Innovation Officer/Director of Interpine Innovation

Using drones to assess residual slash levels in cutover.

BOP Regional Council staff are working closely with Interpine to utilise drone imagery and machine learning to assist with forestry compliance. The work is focused on quantifying slash volumes, with a view to assisting Compliance Officers to be able to enforce the new regulations on maximum volumes of slash that can be left on a cutover (15m) under National Environmental Standard Commercial Forestry (NES-CF).

For more information go to – interpine.nz/services/stocking-cutover-waste/

BOP Regional Council Compliance Update

Erosion and Sediment Control Guidelines for Forestry Operations (2013)
Work is underway to produce a significantly reduced Bay of Plenty specific Erosion and Sediment control Guideline for Forestry Operations which incorporates the Forest Owners Association best practise guides in totality, and retain where required, at this stage there is no deadline for this work.

Regional Sector Forestry Stakeholder Group
District and Regional Councils will a permanent group to help facilitate the regulation of the forestry sector. The aim of this group, endorsed and supported by CESIG, is to champion consistent compliance monitoring and enforcement across the forestry sector in NZ, like the previous Dairy group. The next meeting, scheduled for May, will look to out a framework and terms of reference to get things off the ground.

Regional Natural Resources Plan (RNRP) re-write
Council staff have been considering the gaps in the most recent legislation (NES-CF) and whether these could be covered off with Bay of Plenty specific forestry rules included as part of the Regional Natural Resources Plan re-write. Although Council has not formed a position on the specifics, some of the areas that are considered not catered for in the NES-CF include:

• Wilding pines, particularly on fallowing or retired land
• Managing the downstream effects and risks from windthrow/ wind snap
• Increased setbacks from smaller rivers for certain forestry activities that are likely to increase sedimentation in known receiving environments
• Management of forestry activities to consider catchment issues or where greater risk factors, such as ESC or sediment
• Alignment with the NESF re. activities in or near wetlands

Next meeting date – 29 May 2024

Meetings are facilitated through the CNI Wood Council, for more information or to be added to the distribution list please contact Damita Mita at damita@cniwc.co.nz