Senior Constable Paul Alden, of Lawrence, has organised the meeting to bring "partner agencies" including local forestry interests and landowners together to share their views.
Matters have come to a head in recent weeks following several allegations of poor forestry management leading to an upsurge in wild pigs destroying fencing and neighbouring feed crops in areas across the Lawrence-Tuapeka district.
They allege forestry employees have shot stock straying on to forestry blocks, rather than contacting farmers to request removal.
In total, more than 20 in-lamb ewes, an unknown number of cattle and several pet goats are claimed to have been shot during the past several months.
In addition, about 20 hectares of feed paddock has been "destroyed" by rooting pigs entering farmland via forestry, respondents say.
A Tuapeka farmer, who did not wish to be named, alleged he had had 13 in-lamb ewes killed by employees of Rayonier Matariki Forests after the sheep entered neighbouring pine forestry through fencing damaged by pigs.
In addition, he had had 10ha of feed paddock destroyed by pigs.
He shared about 7.5km of boundary with Rayonier, and simply wanted them to be "good neighbours", he said.
"Up until two years ago, [Rayonier] were real good. There was a discussion if there was a problem, and we’d both give our points of view and come to an agreement.
"The team since then are shocking. One of them literally stated to me, ‘I don’t like farmers’, and they’re just not open to finding a solution.
"To be fair, some of the smaller forestry firms seem to be good, but once we started talking to a few people about the issues, we came across four or five farmers who’ve had similar problems with shot stock arising from lack of proper pest control, right across the district. It’s reaching boiling point."
One of those was Murray Hellewell, who neighbours forested land owned by Swiss firm Corisol.
Mr Hellewell said he had experienced several issues with Corisol, including the alleged shooting of nine in-lamb ewes, planting of trees too close to boundaries, and failure to control pigs, deer and possums.
He was awaiting a response from Corisol regarding compensation for his sheep, he said.
"There’s the sheep, then we’ve shot more than 300 possums this winter since the forestry went in a couple of years back. Pigs have been in and turned over paddocks, and the trees are going to muck up the road in a few years because they’re too close.
"Unfortunately, because they’re based abroad, it’s easy to ignore us as the locals. They bring nothing to the community and need to be held to account," Mr Hellewell said.
Corisol could not be contacted yesterday due to time-zone differences.
Rayonier forest operations director Jason Syme said the company took the concerns of local people seriously.
"[W]e are aware of some of the concerns expressed by members of the community. Matariki Forests takes seriously the responsibility of being a good neighbour and representatives will be attending the scheduled meeting next week to hear and address specific concerns which may be raised."
The meeting will be held at the Lawrence Golf Club next Tuesday at 1.30pm.
