Tasman District Council has been faced with a mammoth clean-up job after back-to-back flood events. Along the Motueka river, there were fences and netting tangled in trees, quadbikes washed into holes, and fridges lodged in branches 5m off the ground, the environmental damage was extreme, large-scale and risky to un-do safely.
Kūmānu assembled two dream-teams of qualified arborists, truck and digger drivers, and field staff, each working on separate riverbanks. Teams worked their way along 10km riverbank over 4 weeks, safely clearing over 50 tonnes of rubbish as they went. Tensioned logs and hanging trees (and fridge freezers) were expertly removed, reducing a significant risk to the public. Where possible, fencing materials and metals were separated and set aside for reuse or recycling in a win-win for the environment and the community.
