New Zealand farms buried in mud and silt face ‘recovery after 10 years’ – pictorial essay | New Zealand

K.Alyn Madlen walks into the ruins of a stallion farm and stands in front of a waterfall. A month ago it was a green hillside. Now the soil has fallen away, exposing the golden ridged sandstone beneath. The water washed away the rocks and is now clear, carrying the last silt downstream.

“That particular slip turned into something very beautiful,” Madlen says.

“When you are at the bottom and turn around, there is all the beauty.

Behind her, the farm is in ruins. The field where she grazes her sheep is destroyed by a huge crack in the earth. 30 acres gone. Sliding down in a huge landslide, the weight of the soil carried trees, flax, grass and fences.

Maddren is one of hundreds of farmers still recovering from the damage. Cyclone Gabriel, and multiple flood events that precede it. Months of unusually heavy rains have left the ground submerged and subdued, and waterways clogged with debris. Streams and culverts were already full, and constant rainfall forced water to find new paths, pooling and running off into farmland. For Maddren and her partner, her Sue Meszaros, winter and the associated rainfall are now looming.

“Once waterways are clogged and rivers are blocked, it no longer needs to be a major event causing flooding, because water has nowhere to go.”

Much of New Zealand’s North Island remains devastated after two disasters in late January and February. Historic levels of rainfall – the largest ever recorded – flooded Auckland and surrounding areas in January, flooding thousands of people and cutting off power and water. Cyclone Gabriel caused further flooding, landslides and extensive damage to Hawks His Bay, Gisborne/Tairahiti and Northland. Many of the worst-hit areas are semi-rural, and farmers are still reeling from the economic and psychological impact of the storm. New Zealand’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture and storms are expected to continue to have a significant impact on food prices and availability.

“this is [had] It made a huge impact,” says Maddren. “Peasants are tough, tough people. Most of the time we have to save ourselves – you have to save yourself because no one is coming to save you.

“But the overall cost of this is starting to take a toll,” she says. “People are feeling fragile.”

Agriculture Minister Damian O’Connor announced the first $4 million response fund in February, saying, “The impact of this storm is unprecedented, disrupting milk collection, flooding orchards and flooding the North Island. Livestock have been lost in large parts of the country, with the government on Monday announcing an additional $26 million to help farmers clear the cyclone.

“The overall picture for the community is that everyone is still trying to figure out what the damage is,” Maddren said.

Steve Dill’s family has been raising sheep and cattle in the Kaipara hills north of Auckland for five generations.

“It was totally unthinkable to have three major weather events within five weeks,” he says. The storm destroyed many fences and farmland, making it impossible to perform critical livestock management, such as gathering and breeding rams and ewes and allocating and prioritizing pasture. Many of the farms surrounding him are facing similar damage from massive slides and landslides, with low-lying farms thinning pastures and dying grass after weeks of flooding.

“We lost 80% of our inventory control, which basically destroyed our business,” says Dill. “You can’t reach 50% of the farm yet if you don’t walk.

Some of the land has changed so much that he does not believe it can be returned to farming.

“It’s kind of numb,” Dill says. “I really don’t know where to look, where to look, where to start.”