Appeal of farmer’s wilding pine control win reaches High Court

A council ordered to add a Marlborough farm’s pest control rights into the region’s pest management plan says the Environment Court overstepped its jurisdiction.

Stronvar Station’s owner, former councillor Geoff Evans, had taken Marlborough District Council to court last year, to stop the council taking over control of the station’s wilding pines – and won his case.

Geoff had been battling wilding pines on the Waihopai family farm for nearly two decades when the council placed a “containment control zone” on his property, meaning he had to take “active control efforts” to prevent further infestations of pines outside the zone.

Stronvar had been in the family since 1944. Immediately north, in the Wye Catchment, the former Marlborough Catchment Board was planted in mainly contorta pine – the most “aggressive” pest species.

This was done for erosion control, over a 370ha block, between 1959 and the mid-1980s. But over the years they spread to cover 7000ha, including the fragile “uppermost slopes” of Stronvar.

In 2020, a new pest management plan handed management of the “containment control zone” to the council.

Geoff told the Environment Court last year he had concerns the council’s pest control methods could damage the indigenous vegetation established amongst the conifers.

The Environment Court ruled in his favour in March and directed the council to insert a site-led management plan for wilding pest conifers at Stronvar.

The council appealed that decision. The appeal was heard by Justice Helen McQueen in the Blenheim High Court last week.

The council’s lawyer Philip Maw said directing the council to add a site-led programme meant adding something that had not gone through consultation.

This included considering all the reasons for a site-led programme, he said.

He said the Environment Court therefore did not have the jurisdiction to “reach back” and force the council to adopt the programme.

Geoff’s lawyer Quentin Davies disagreed.

He said he did not make the “same distinction” between what was a proposal and a plan.

“There is a subtle change, [but] given the power to the court, they should be able to review all of that,” he said.

“When it moves from plan to proposal ... the same sorts of issues are being dealt with.

“Given the position that the Environment Court holds, being the check and balance in the process, why it would only be able to check some things …. doesn't, in my submission, make functional sense.”

Davies said the council and its lawyers would need to persuade the High Court a site-led programme was impossible to do, but in cross-examination during the Environment Court hearing, the council’s biosecurity manager said it “could be appropriate”.

Quentin went on to say Geoff was in a “special position” – being the last pastoral farmer in the area, surrounded by Department of Conservation land, QEII covenant land, and forestry.

“He is in a special case and deserves special treatment,” he said.

Questions of the costs to control the pines were also raised, but it was agreed they would be dealt with at a later date.

Justice McQueen reserved her decision.

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