Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

For as long as I can remember, farming and forestry have gone hand-in-hand. In fact, there was a huge push, back in the 80s for farmers to invest heavily in forestry but now the chickens have come to roost.   Federated Farmers is now calling on the government to establish an independent inquiry into the factors that contributed to the flooding and destroyed infrastructure from ex-tropical cyclone Hale. The tragedy now is that every time there’s a rain event more ‘slash’ is washing down throughout The East Cape causing incredible damage and exponential costs for farmers and ultimately the forestry industry.   There are farmers along The East Cape who’ve just about lost the will to carry on and are seriously considering shutting the farm gate and walking away. That’s how bad the situation has got.   The problem goes back as far as 1988, when Cyclone Bola came to town, and consequently, thousands of hectares of trees were planted on some pretty dubious farming land with the intention of stabilising the precariou