A Canterbury council has replanted 35ha of forest after a large amount of land suffered severe damage from storms in 2013.
About 30 per cent of the 57 Selwyn District Council-owned forestry sites received high to medium losses during the series of storms with a further 45 per cent incurring some loss.
"This situation resulted in the forced harvest of many blocks to reduce losses," says a district council report.
"The result of this action resulted in the council’s 116.5ha forest estate being reduced by 53.8ha through deforestation."
The district council decided it would remove its involvement in forestry activity, given the risk of further loss from wind events, fire and challenges around financial viability.
In order to avoid or reduce carbon unit payments for deforested land, the most cost-effective and practical approach was to re-stock the land before considering the disposal of it.
A total of 35.9ha has been replanted so far on 15 different sites.
Preparation work for the planting of 2ha of native trees at Timberyard Point near Lakeside Domain has been completed.
Planting on this site is to be undertaken through a volunteer scheme later this year.
The cost for land preparation, re-stocking and establishment for the work done so far is $110,031.
There are 10 sites that are not suitable for replanting and have been reassessed for alternative uses or disposal.
Some have been converted to grazing and are now the responsibility of the leaseholder.
This means the total number of sites the district council uses for forestry has reduced from 57 to 47.
"The council has historically managed a forestry resource with a total of 57 sites across the district. Most of the sites are held as reserves and are small in area, 2 hectares or less, with the largest being 10 hectares
"The afforesting of these areas has primarily been used as a land management practice to maintain the sites and to generate a return from land that would otherwise be unused and unproductive," a district council report said.
