Farmers in the Waikato are worried after several fall  were found at properties in Tamahere. The pest insects, known by moth nerds as spodoptera frugiperda, are known for the speed in which they destroy crops in the later stages of their lifecycle, and have been observed travelling distances of up to 400 kilometres with a good tailwind. Fall armyworms have already wreaked havoc on Australian crops, with studies estimating an up to $40 million cost to farmers over the next decade. Local farmers hope to control the moths with spraying and upcoming harsh winter conditions.

A Tokoroa man failed to stop Council felling a tree after he almost fell out of it himself. After the 60 year old Liquidambar tree’s roots were found to be damaging the surrounding roads and footpath, the tree was set to be removed when a passionate neighbouring resident climbed the tree in an attempt to save it. The tree removalists later helped him down from said tree after the man slipped from the branch he was posted up on, and he was arrested a few hours later. I was going to reach out to the man for comment, but after seeing his Facebook page, I decided it was best to just let dead trees lie.

A man who owns a farm in Morrinsville has been sentenced to home d for crimes against the environment. Several complaints from members of the public about the farmer led to an investigation by Waikato Regional Council, which found that homie was just straight up dumping thousands of tonnes of ‘liquid waste’ in to the Piako River. This charge followed years of similar shit cunt behaviour from the man – in addition to being charged with ‘discharging contaminants into the environment,’ bro has also been found guilty of breaching court orders and ‘excavating a stream.’ The man faces a $100,000 fine and five months indoors to think about what he’s done.

Over in Te Awamutu, tensions are rising over a proposed plan to hide our rubbish and waste crisis by just like, burning it all in a giant incinerator. A proposal from Global Contracting Solutions will see a large incinerator built in TA which will, according to Sue Coutts, run ‘24 hours a day, 7 days a week’ and burn up to ‘166,525 tonnes of municipal solid waste, plastics, tyres and flock.’ While burning all of our trash sounds good in theory, opposition groups point out that incineration creates a highly toxic, poisonous, carcinogenic chemical called ‘dioxin,’ which probably isn’t a good thing to have floating around ambiently in the atmosphere. Studies conducted around similar incinerators in Europe have found that living in the area causes ‘​​lung cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas and childhood cancers,’ among other things. Seems legit I guess?