July 22, 2020
Forestry slash damages coast lifestyle
An East Coast identity says weekend flooding that left beaches strewn with logs and branches brought home the damage the forest industry is doing to the region’s environment.
Forestry companies have warned it could be summer before they are able to clear the beaches.
Erana Keelan-Reedy from Radio Ngāti Porou says rivers are affected not just by sediment and slash but by the gravel extracted for roads.
The clear rivers she swam in during childhood are long gone.
"Every time there is a flood and you can look out at one of our rivers and there is a tree floating down the river. You're getting slash all over our kāpata kai. We've been living with sediment on our kāpata kai – at least you can dig around the sediment – but you can't get to rocks or your crayfish holes if there is a blood tree in the road," she says.
Erana Keelan-Reedy says the people of the coast need to find more sustainable ways to get along, or they will hand their mokopuna a disaster.
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