A huge mass of pale logs and forest debris stretches as far as the eye can see along a stretch of remote, and once relatively pristine, Hawke’s Bay coastline.

The logs and other woody debris ebb and flow in the murky brown estuary of the Waikare River, halfway between Napier and Wairoa.

It’s been this way since Cyclone Gabrielle.

Before the cyclone hit on February 14, the river water ran clear, the beach could be walked along, and one of the region’s hidden gems – a Department of Conservation campsite you could use for free – was open.

Facilities at the campsite, on a bend in the river about 200m from the sea, were destroyed in the storm, and DoC is in the process of removing structures and “re-evaluating the future of the site”.

The river has its origins in hills covered in forestry blocks about 35km northwest of the beach. In the cyclone this usually placid river filled with logs and debris and became such a torrent that it obliterated the State Highway Two bridge near the settlement of Putorino, 10km inland from the beach.

John Grace, who has owned the 500 hectare Waikari Station​ for the past 24 years, said the condition of the beach, which bounds the station, is “something that should make every New Zealander sit up and ask what on earth is going on”.

“You don’t need to be an expert to see that logs on the beach have been cut by chainsaws and clearly come from forest blocks. And this is just a sample of one part of one piece of coastline,” he said.

”The clear-cutting of forests is like nuclear warfare on the environment, without the radiation. Just think of the whole ecosystem which develops in those trees and ground over the years and then gets nuked when the foreign company wants cash, not to mention the impact this has on sea life,” he said.

“We have seen zero interest from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. One letter even questioned if it really came from the forestry industry”.

“It beggars belief that an industry can be responsible for this sort of devastation and not be held to account. The country and its citizens, not to mention its natural environment, deserve better than this. I really hope things change,” Grace said.

After a flooding event in 2010 deposited a large amount of forestry slash and debris on the beach, Pan Pac Forest Products, which had operations upstream of the beach, agreed at Grace’s request to clean it up.

“What’s on the beach now is multiple times worse than it was then,” Grace said.

Requests by Grace to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for information on which forestry companies were involved in harvesting logs upstream of the beach did not provide anything helpful.

A report commissioned by the council saw consultants visit 17 sites to assess the origins of the debris, but they couldn’t land their helicopter on Waikare Beach, so the logs couldn’t be assessed.

Later visits were made, but it couldn’t be determined where the logs and debris came from, so regulatory action won’t be taken.

Council’s head of communications Mike Johansson said staff had visited “most active forestry blocks” since the cyclone and “only found some low-risk, non-compliance”.

“The council has not investigated any breaches of the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NESPF) or consent conditions for the wood debris. This is due to the difficulty in proving and identifying the origin of the wood debris and the connection to any particular forest,” Johansson said.

Pan Pac Forest Products communications manager Kimberley Moody said unlike the 2010 event that saw the beach covered in debris, the councils and forestry companies had agreed that the debris brought down during Cyclone Gabrielle couldn’t be tagged to one source so councils had taken responsibility for arranging the clean-up.

Central Government has put tens of millions towards Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Gisborne District Council for clearing debris, silt and forestry slash after the cyclone.

In Gisborne/Tairāwhiti three forestry companies: Aratu, Ernslaw One and PF Olsen, have also contributed millions of dollars towards clean-ups on the region’s beaches.

In Hawke’s Bay the clean up of debris, silt and slash is being handled by the Silt Recovery Taskforce, created by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Hastings District Council. It had received more than $130 million from central government, but this had already been spent and was not enough to clear all debris and silt.

The Taskforce’s woody debris manager Hamish Scown said Waikare Beach had been visited several times and a plan had been developed, but it would require more funding from the government in order to be completed.

”It is proposed that the debris will be cleared away from the waterline back beyond the high-tide mark around both sides of the outlet and 1-2km in each direction. Accessways can also be pushed through the windows of debris to ensure access routes are improved to the coastline, including for 4-wheel drive access,” Scown said.

“We estimate this would take 8 weeks, making a huge difference in restoring the amenity value of the area,” he said.

“This is a proposal only due to budget constraints while we wait for more funding from Government.”