Cyclone Gabrielle update – 11 Feb

“We are closely monitoring Cyclone Gabrielle as it tracks towards Aotearoa New Zealand and considering the impact it may have on hills and waterways in the region.   We are focused on supporting our community as quickly and safely as possible.

Our primary concern is always the safety of our teams and the public, and we urge the public to follow Civil Defence instructions including if those are to stay away from beaches and waterways.

The forestry industry is focused on controlling the factors it can control at this time, including work on resilience inside our forest gates.

Since slash issues in 2018, the industry has changed its practices to mitigate the risks of woody debris flowing. This includes reducing harvest residues left on sites, increasing road drainage structures, lifting construction of infrastructure to a much higher standard to reduce the risk of failure and increasing streamside buffers and re-vegetation with native species to protect waterways.

However, we cannot control some factors such as the weather and the highly erodible soils we work with in Tairāwhiti.

We do have a responsibility to mitigate the impacts of both where we can, and we are committed to this.

While we wait for the weather to pass, we would again encourage the public to put safety first and follow official advice including advice to avoid beaches or waterways if they become impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.”