Recent forestry conflagrations in the South Island had been ascribed to chain saws, he noted. This was a clear indication that “standard practice” in relation to forest culling was not being adhered to.“The standard practice is that there must be no chainsaw operation in the forest within two hours of the workforce leaving that forest,” he stated.It was evident that this in the event had been disregarded. Mr Eaton pointed out that if climatic predictions bore any relation to reality, the forest fire danger, and thus the need to adhere to standard practice, would become intensified.Mr Eaton had earlier warned of the danger in local government believing it was incumbent upon them to open forest roads for motor rallies, another cause of forest fires.Mr Eaton, a major forestry figure in the Wellington region for many years, has consistently warned local governments of the danger they were courting in becoming forestry operators.He has pointed out that while municipalities had echelons of skilled staff in for example the water treatment sector, they tended to have no in-house forestry expertise.A significant problem for local authorities was in reconciling forestry economic returns with the stated environmental and conservation objective.The planting of quick-growth trees to ensure early returns conflicted with the longer term conservation objective, he pointed out, drawing attention to the erosion and silting in the Marlborough Sounds caused by the excavation of forestry access roads.The faster growing the tree, the greater the forest fire vulnerability he stated.Mr Eaton has warned that in operating forests, local government courts the same danger as it did in the run up to the leaky buildings problem.“You see this same danger in both instances, “ said Mr Eaton, “that of highly specialised operations and supervisory work being outsourced to organisations over which these councils have little or no ultimate control.”

From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk