SEWG – Meeting 25 September 2025 – Balclutha

The theme for this meeting was all about Managing Slash, we kicked off with an overview of the legislation followed by an interactive session focussing on sharing how we are currently managing slash with regards to risk assessments, defining slash storage areas, documentation for contractors, during and post harvest management.

It was fair to say most of the time we were all aligned on where we were currently operating, which was very reassuring. We then had a guest speaker, Lloyd McGinty from Whirika who took us through the current bio energy space in NZ and locally and we learnt all about the different types of wood pellets.

Our field visit hosted by Corey Wyber at Calder Stewart we looked at slash management and landing construction and rehabilitation, we learnt about how they keep the topsoil to recloak the landing to replant after harvest, a concept used more so in road construction and not seen on that scale!