An airstrip built in a protected wetland area was granted consent retrospectively despite objections from Gisborne District Council's own ecologist and the Department of Conservation.
Te Rimu Trust built an airstrip on its property near Te Araroa without consent in late 2018. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
It is the third case of unconsented development in East Coast wetlands in three years, but landowners Te Rimu Trust got off with a warning and were permitted to operate indefinitely, despite others being convicted and fined thousands of dollars.
Te Rimu Trust levelled gravel ridges of the "unique" shingle dunes near Te Araroa without consent in late 2018.
Eastland Group and Trust Tairāwhiti each paid $23,000 toward the unconsented work. The Provincial Growth Fund later contributed $99,775 toward fencing and signage at the aerodrome.
Proponents say an existing airstrip near Te Araroa township was dangerous for takeoff and landing and that the new airstrip would be used for emergency and recreational flights, and improve business, tourism and transport resilience.
Part of the nearby wetland area. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
Emails accessed under an official information request show the council considered prosecuting Te Rimu Trust after it constructed an airstrip in the Protected Management Area (PMA) marked as the "regionally significant" Te Whare Wetlands under district plans.
But instead the trust applied for a resource consent to cover the works already done and those still needed to finish the 900m grassed runway, including upgrades to an existing farm track and building a carpark.
In applying for consent, Te Rimu Trust's consultants argued the construction and operation of the airstrip would have "no effect" on the wetland.
Consultants said the airstrip was located 16m to 130m away from wetland areas and that the proposal would not result in the modification of the wetland.
Arguing how the threatened wetland birds would not be affected by the aeroplanes, the proposal said the nationally critical Australasian bittern, which was likely to feed and live less than 20m from the airstrip, would "flush" if disturbed, stand frozen in place with its beak pointing to the sky, or creep away.
Unconsented construction of the airstrip infringed on a portion of a regionally significant wetland as identified in the Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
The council consented the airstrip in December last year. The Ombudsman confirmed it had received a complaint but was unable to provide further details.
Senior council ecologist Abigail Salmond urged her colleagues to delay consenting the airstrip to give their science team time to better understand the environmental impacts.
Emails show the staffer in charge of the consent "escalated" Salmond's concerns to the council chief executive.
Days later, the council's science team produced a second report saying they had "no objections".
Salmond said parts of the wetland were easy to identify, but other areas were "less obvious", however, these also formed part of the shingle dune ridge system.
"It is clear that the airstrip has filled in or levelled the pre-existing ridge hollow system, however, it is unclear what kind of habitat has been affected," Salmond's email said.
"Although it does not impact the area of the PMA identified specifically as raupo wetland, it does impact on the wider ecosystem of wetland-shingle, dune-coastal wetland, which is of regional significance."
A Resource Management Act senior planner at the Department of Conservation said it had concerns about the proposed activity due to the protections in place and its proximity to the wetland.
"DOC has concerns that the adverse effects on ecological values may be more than minor," he said.
Unconsented construction of the airstrip infringed on a portion of a regionally significant wetland as identified in the Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
Te Rimu Trust chairman Richard Clarke said the area was not wetland and it was previously grazed with cattle and bulls.
He did not know the area was legally protected or that consent was needed to construct the airstrip.
Clarke has been a trustee of the ahu whenua trust that owns and manages the 270-hectare farm near Te Araroa since 1997.
"The land where the aerodrome is is not a wetland for crying out loud," he said.
"What happens is somebody from DOC or wherever stood at the side of the road and said 'wetlands' and they did a brush over it.
"People are just getting sick and tired of others coming over the top of them and on their land and saying 'that's wetland', or 'you can't do this, you can't do that'. It's wrong."
Council ecologist Abi Salmond said parts of the wetland were easy to identify, like the area pictured, but other "less obvious" areas still formed part of the shingle dune ridge system. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
Clarke said the motivation for an aerodrome at Te Araroa was for civil emergency reasons.
"When Cyclone Bola (1988) came through, this area was isolated by road. When the weather is bad, aeroplanes typically fly around the coast and they want to be able to land safely."
The airstrip also might be used to export "high-value" mānuka oil products being produced near Te Araroa, he said.
Tairāwhiti Pharmaceuticals' mānuka oil factory is next door to the airstrip.
"It just opens this area for tourism potentially. It enables people in business to get here instead of driving two-and-a-half hours on a substandard road.
"This was championed by Eastland Group, Trust Tairāwhiti, government funding and Te Rimu Trust, and endorsed by Gisborne District Council," Clarke said.
Te Rimu Trust chairman Richard Clarke, presenting a barge proposal to Gisborne District Council earlier this year, says the area is not a wetland and he was not aware of protections in place. Photo: LDR / Supplied
Te Rimu Trust had received funding for a significant indigenous riparian planting programme along Karakatūwhero River and buffer areas around Te Whare Wetland.
Eastland Group general manager of business development Alice Pettigrew said the airstrip, which was now in operation, would support business, tourism and recreational activities, as well as improve transport resilience for the region.
"As the only coastal airstrip on the East Cape, it will provide emergency fixed-wing access in civil defence emergencies when road transport options may be unusable.
"And it will improve accessibility for medical emergency flights."
The Karakatūwhero River mouth, just west of the airstrip, where Te Rimu Trust proposed to build a barging port facility. Photo: LDR / Alice Angeloni
Te Rimu Trust has long championed a proposal for a barging port facility on land it owns at the mouth of Karakatūwhero River, but this week a working group set up to assess the impacts of the proposal abandoned that location for environmental reasons.
A hīkoi against the barging proposal took place on Saturday.
Other cases of unconsented development
Mānuka business Tairāwhiti Pharmaceuticals was convicted of modifying and taking water from Te Whare Wetlands in breach of the Resource Management Act in July. The company was fined $28,000 after it planted 3.1 hectares of mānuka through the protected area in 2019, and dug channels to reduce flooding. The plantation is used to produce mānuka oil at its Te Araroa factory next door to the airstrip.
East Coast earthworks business Kuru Contracting was fined $68,000 last year for diverting the Kopuaroa Stream and modifying a wetland near Ruatoria in 2018 and 2019. At sentencing, the council's lawyer Adam Hopkinson said "just because the East Coast is a relatively remote area [it] does not mean the Resource Management Act does not apply".
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.