Dr Corbett rightly deplores the mangrove destruction in Welcome Bay and wonders at the silence from Forest and Bird.
Forest and Bird has not been silent on the issue. Forest and Bird has opposed all the resource consents for mangrove clearance but our opposition has been over-ruled. When consent was granted for the use of the mangrove mulcher, Bay of Plenty Environment staff maintained that the debris created would be quickly removed by the tide, and eventually the mud too.
This didn't happen. The quantity of debris, the rotting roots, the trampling by the machine and the lack of tidal flushing, combined to create a stinking, airless quagmire, killing all the life that previously lived around the mangrove roots. This devastation has persisted in the large areas cleared over a year ago and was quite obvious last year in the Waikareao estuary when Forest and Bird showed it to councillors and staff. Despite verbal assurances that the results of the clearance were unacceptable, little has changed and the carnage continued.
Welcome Bay residents can look forward to a continuing vista of desolation, a mute reproach to environmental vandalism.
Ann Graeme
Member, Tauranga Forest and Bird