The silt was up to six metres deep in areas of Eskdale. Photo: Supplied / Natasha Tanner
Hawke's Bay officials are marking the end of its silt recovery work, while woody debris removal work in Tai Rāwhiti is set to ramp up over the summer months.
Last year, cyclones Hale and Gabrielle caused a path of destruction across the North Island's east coast with millions of tonnes of silt, woody debris and sediment washing down rivers from hills, devastating homes and properties.
The silt recovery taskforce in Hawke's Bay has collected more than 2.5 million cubic metres of silt, sediment and woody debris off more than 1000 properties over 7000 hectares.
Funded by the government, the taskforce was launched in April last year to establish silt collection sites and work with affected groups including landowners, iwi, forestry contractors, central and local government on the programme.
Silt recovery taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said the months following the cyclone were a "massive challenge".
"The sheer number of jobs logged, and the widespread damage was overwhelming," he said.
De Klerk said it had recycled around 15,000 orchard and vineyard posts, water tanks, irrigation pipes - and significant volumes of woody debris were re-purposed into mulch and boiler fuel.
"We've cleared an estimated 2.5 million cubic metres of silt, helped hundreds of landowners back to productivity, and sorted through over 400,000 cubic metres of mixed waste and tidied up close to 1.2 million cubic metres of woody debris."
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said finishing the job in less than two years following the cyclone was "no mean feat", and a major milestone to the region's wider recovery.
"Seeing properties cleaned up, the piles of silt gone, grass sprouting and our land getting back to productivity is wonderful," Hazlehurst said.
This week, the Department of Internal Affairs said $6 million in silt and debris funding would be made available until June for Wairoa, which was welcomed by mayor Craig Little.
Meanwhile, further north in Tai Rāwhiti, forestry crews, iwi, regulators and farmers had been working tirelessly to remove slash and woody debris.
Photo: LDR
Gisborne District Council recovery programme manager Rod Sheridan said about 30 to 40 percent of the slash from the cyclones and other weather events had been removed by forestry crews and helicopters.
"When the cyclones hit us back nearly two years ago, we ended up with around 1.2 to 1.5 million tonnes of woody debris across our region and our waterways and catchments," Sheridan said.
"Since then, we've removed around half a million tonnes of it. It's been a busy time getting on, but there's still a lot to do."
In August, the Tai Rāwhiti Forestry Action Group was set up to oversee the slash removal programme - as well as a transition advisory group to work out how to help landowners make the change to a more sustainable land use.
Action group chairperson Patrick Willock said forestry crews would make good use of the good weather from about February to May.
He said the objective was to make as much progress in removing troublesome slash and debris as possible.
"The top goal is to get into full operation as quickly as possible," Willock said.
"The five or six months that we've been going, there's been just so much work in behind the scenes, getting everything teed up.
"Everyone's conscious that we need to get on with it and we need to get it done.
"Once we've got these rivers cleared, we don't want to go to sleep on it, and just let the problem slowly build up again."
Willock said steep terrain, poor land access, silt and high costs of helicopter use were just some of the challenges for the complex project.
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