West Coast regional councillor Allan Birchfield was yesterday cleared of eight Department of Conservation charges of breaching the Conservation Act, each of which carried a maximum fine of $80,000.

DOC initially laid nine charges in the Greymouth District Court against Birchfield Minerals but one, of illegally creating settling ponds, was withdrawn at the start of the hearing because it was actually an effluent pond created by a farmer and with DOC's blessing.

Judge Jane Farish also got rid of two charges that Birchfield Minerals, or an agent of the company (Amalgamated Mining Ltd) had mined illegally or damaged natural fauna in the Grey River.

Discharging those charges, Judge Farish said DOC had not proven when the damage was done or who caused it.

That left six charges alleging that Birchfields had mined illegally and damaged natural features in the Blackball Creek terrace and marginal strip, a narrow corridor of land on Athol Fayen's land.

Mr Fayen told the court that he had, with DOC approval, built a bridge across the creek which required him carving an access road along the terrace face. Some of the damage caused in building the road was later considered by DOC to be the result of Birchfield's work.

Judge Farish said it was pertinent that the two DOC officers who visited the site and photographed the damage had never been there before and therefore could not provide her with a proper history of the area.

Allan Birchfield, a company director, told the court that his big Grey River gold dredge had broken down and was out of action for eight months. To keep his 17 staff in work he kept one crew on the repair of the dredge and another mining on top of the Blackball Terrace.

During this operation one of his diggers, working on top of the terrace, capsized after falling into an old mine shaft. Given his obligation under the Health and Safety Act that he remove or eliminate any safety hazard on a work site, he systematically went about digging out other known shafts and 'sidecasting' the gravel down the side of the terrace.

Some of this spilled on to the marginal strip and DOC land but he had not intended this.

Any trees uprooted were secondary growth willows and beech, the area having been mined in the 1940s and could not be considered natural features, Mr Birchfield said.

Judge Farish said that to convict she had to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that Birchfield was knowingly and deliberately in breach of the act.

He had told DOC community relations ranger Inger Perkins he was aware that he was operating illegally but, after his gold dredge had broken down he needed new ground to keep his staff in work and it would take too long to get the required consents, but this was after relations with DOC soured.

Initially, Birchfield and DOC had agreed on a site restoration plan, but DOC's attitude later changed and it was decided to prosecute him.

Large trees left in pockets on the terrace showed that Birchfield had not taken a "holus-bolus approach" to clearing the ground but only removed the bush that needed to go to ensure the safety of his workers.