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Lake Taupo Forest Trust is scrambling to salvage about 4000 hectares of mature trees blown over in Cyclone Gabrielle.
The trust brings together 69 Tuwharetoa land blocks which were put into crown lease 50 years ago, but all the forests are now owned by the trust’s 15,000 owners.
Chief executive John Bishara says normally about 70 percent of its output goes to sawmills in the central North Island, but the storm damage means the logs will be exported for pulp.
“We’ve got about 3 million tonnes sitting on the ground so the bird’s eye picture when we use satellites and fly in fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters, it’s pretty devastating but it’s not as devastating as what happened in Tairawhiti and Ngati Kahungunu. The trees do represent something hugely valuable to us as a people of Ngati Tuwharetoa but at the end of the day they are just trees,” he says.
Mr Bishara says Lake Taupo and Lake Rotoaira Forests have been able to bring in harvest crews and trucking operations from Tairawhiti to help with the salvage.
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