More than 100 Tolaga Bay locals have turned out to a meeting to discuss recent flooding and the damage caused by the leftovers from forestry operations.

Slash - or offcuts from forestry harvesting - washed down from forestry plots and blocked rivers and damaged farms in two bouts of heavy rain in the region over the past few weeks.

A panel of forestry company and Gisborne District Council personnel were being asked questions by the crowd.

The council said it was investigating whose fault the slash-damage was and how it could be prevented in the future.

The investigation will take three months.

Residents want to know why the clean up was taking so long, what will happen to all the debris and how the slash will be managed.

Forestry companies said they would come up with a solution but it would not happen overnight.

Last week it was revealed the council was warned in a report more than seven months ago that forestry debris was likely to cause huge damage in another big storm.