By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter of 
Stuart Biggs denied a charge of wilfully damaging vegetation in Wakefield after he was caught on a forestry company security camera with a chainsaw near a locked gate. Photo: Supplied / NZME
A man seen with a chainsaw near a locked gate in a commercial forest in Wakefield denied cutting an illegal access track around it for mountain bikers and motocross riders.
Stuart Biggs said he had instead parked his blue vehicle at the gate to clear a fallen tree further back down the road having earlier managed to "squeeze" under it and scrape the cab of his vehicle while on his way to inspect a property that was for sale.
But the property's real estate agent was not available for an appointment so Biggs inspected the site from the boundary and returned using an inland route.
The part-time farmer in Appleby, south of Nelson, always carried a chainsaw, he told the police under cross-examination.
His story did not wash with the judge in the Nelson District Court on Thursday, who said the police had proved the charge of intentional damage to Tasman Pine Forests' vegetation, and therefore Biggs was guilty.
"I do not accept your explanation," Judge Jo Rielly said in convicting him.
Biggs defended the charge at a judge-alone trial, which arose from what was captured on a forestry company security camera on the afternoon of 20 November 2022.
It was cemented by evidence from the body camera of a forestry security agent, Robert Crawford, who visited Biggs at his Appleby home the following day.
What began as "convivial" dialogue soon became heated as Biggs took umbrage at being questioned and was heard on the video played to the court swearing and issuing threats to Crawford.
"I asked him about the damage and he laughed and asked what the problem was," Crawford said in court.
He also said Biggs had told him he had cut a track to allow access for motorbikes and mountain bikes which was "a serious breach of the rules".
Biggs could be heard on the video telling Crawford he had a permit to enter the forest and that he had not caused any damage.
He presented as evidence a photo of the tree he had removed, and said he had photographed it "out of curiosity".
"I decided for some reason to stop and take a photo of the log," Biggs said in cross-examination.
He has since been trespassed by forest owner, Tasman Pine Forests, whose executive director Steve Chandler told NZME that further legal action would follow if Biggs "as much as puts one foot" on its land again.
Chandler said not only did Biggs put himself and other legitimate forest users at risk from a health and safety perspective, but by operating a chainsaw illegally the forest had also been put at risk.
"The Pigeon Valley fire in 2019 caused millions of dollars of damage to our property and adjoining properties," Chandler said.
The Pigeon Valley Fire, sparked by the use of farm equipment on 5 February 2019, burned about 2300 hectares of commercial plantation forest, property and pastures, plus a home and shed.
Crawford said in court he initially had not intended to report the matter to the police, but after the encounter with Biggs at his home, whom he described as "self-entitled and lacking in remorse", he changed his mind.
Defence lawyer Michael Vesty said Biggs did not deny he was in the area of the Dovedale Saddle.
But the reason he was there took the better part of four hours to thrash out in court.
"He was there to remove a log from across the main road," Vesty said.
He added that Biggs did not accept he had cut a new track - a track was already there.
Crawford said in his witness evidence that the track covered by vegetation the day before Biggs was there was visible again by the Sunday night.
He said the forestry company faced "a number of issues" with mountain bikers and motorbikes accessing forestry areas the public was banned from.
He noticed during a routine security check a gap of about two metres wide beside the gate and that pine trees had been felled.
Security camera footage played to the court showed Biggs drive up to the gate, which had signs saying it was private property, turn around and then get out of the vehicle.
The man, confirmed as Biggs by what Crawford said was a lawful check of the vehicle registration, then walked away.
Forty minutes later he came back to the vehicle and got out a small electric chainsaw, "a bit like a toy".
Biggs was seen to return to his vehicle 37 minutes later, take off his gumboots and empty them, rub himself down with a towel, and then appear in a brief shot to be on his phone once back in the vehicle.
Judge Rielly failed to accept that it took less time to cut up a tree and remove it than Biggs' initial reconnaissance inspection, having walked from his vehicle to where the tree lay across the road.
She said whether Biggs was in the area where the forest was damaged was not the issue, but whether he caused the damage.
Judge Rielly said it was clear from the photos presented that the area in question had previously been a track people used to get into the forest, but it had been "deliberately changed" to stop public access and then re-cleared sometime between 19 and 20 November 2022.
"There was no-one else in the area with a chainsaw. It's unlikely to have been any other person who accessed that part of the forest, other than you," Judge Rielly said in delivering her decision.
Biggs was convicted and ordered to pay $1366 in reparation to cover the cost of a digger used to re-block the access plus the cost of the investigation.
- This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald.
