In late 2015 a helicopter was used by Comvita to blanket spray weedkiller on part of the Hillary Hope Native Forest Reserve near the divi summit, east of Raglan. Whaingaroa Harbourcare made an official complaint to the Waikato Regional Council, the organisation responsible for protecting our local environment.
After investigating the complaint, WRC issued an ‘Outcome Letter’ which basically said there was little they could do, saying, “…., there is no evidence to support the notion that there was any significant environmental impact, in particular that slope instability has been created and/or will be exacerbated by the spraying activity”. This seemed a very odd thing to say given that in New Zealand there is an abundance of evidence that clearing forest and planting grass on hill country in itself causes erosion and that if you kill the grass entirely the erosion will get worse.
Given this unsatisfactory response from the Waikato Regional Council, Fiona Edwards and Fred Lichtwark of Whaingaroa Harbourcare decided to deal directly with the Native Forest Restoration Trust and Comvita.
Resulting from this the Native Forest Restoration Trust decided that that if and when they came to putting a contract in place for planting of the next 20 hectares it should be tightened up to include a number of new conditions, even if this meant that Comvita would pull out.
In a letter to Comvita’s CEO, Harbourcare pointed out that Comvita’s approach to growing manuka with weeds controlled by blanket spraying of chemicals didn’t seem to line up with what Comvita said on their website, saying in the letter, “In light of the actions on the Sir Edmund Hillary Hope Reserve, we believe these statements on your website would justify a Fair Trading Act investigation by the Commerce Commission and the NZ Advertising Standards.”
Harbourcare have reported that the CEO of Comvita received the Harbourcare letter and agreed it did not look good for them. He phoned to say that he has instructed his staff to stop and not spray any more chemical on Hope Hillary reserve. He also agreed to meet with Harbourcare to see the damage that has been done and will now talk with Native Forest Restoration Trust to go over what can be done .
Fred Lichtwark said, “This is good news that the 30 hectares will not be re-sprayed nor will anything be done to the next 20 hectares.”