“Irresponsible” forestry harvest results in convictions and fines

Convictions and fines totalling $112,500 have been imposed for repeated environmental damage caused by a forestry harvesting operation and associated earthworks on a farm near Waihi between August 2022 and October 2023.

Forestry company Seaview Logging Limited and company director, Graeme Howard Savill, who carried out the harvest, were convicted and sentenced by District Court Judge Lauren Semple in the Huntly District Court on 17 April 2025 on five charges of breaching National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry.

The defendants appealed the sentence to the High Court; however, this week that appeal has been abandoned and the original sentence retained.

The prosecution was taken by the Waikato Regional Council and related to forestry harvesting, earthworks and river crossing activities that occurred in an 18-hectare plantation forest owned by another company directed by Mr Savill.

When council compliance officers first inspected the forestry site, they found inadequate erosion and sediment controls, unstabilised earthworks and tracking, and an illegal river crossing. Sediment and slash had also been deposited into a tributary of the Waitaheke Stream which flowed through the harvest area.

Despite two abatement notices being served on the company, follow up inspections over the next year found the defendants repeatedly failed to comply with the requirements of those notices, and continued to permit the discharge of sediment, spoil and forestry slash into waterways as the harvesting operation progressed.

In sentencing the defendants, Judge Semple stated that “the defendants are experienced forestry operators undertaking forestry harvesting in a highly careless if not reckless manner.”

Waikato Regional Council’s acting Regional Compliance Manager Evan Billington said, “The Waitaheke Stream is a natural state waterbody and a fish spawning stream. The national environmental standards are designed to protect these environments. Where landowners or forestry contractors act irresponsibly and in breach of the regulations, resulting in adverse environmental outcomes, they can expect enforcement action to be taken.”

Mr Billington added, “The harvest and earthworks management was done very poorly, with Mr Savill failing to take his responsibilities seriously, despite the intervention of council officers. The adverse effects of sediment and forestry slash on waterways is widely known and, in this case, on a stream with significant environmental value that should be protected.”

Read the full sentencing notes here. [PDF, 233 KB]

Above: Illegal stream crossing: Slash and spoil damming a tributary of the Waitaheke Stream.