A final decision on who will be granted the contract to remove wind-blown timber felled by Cyclone Ita, on the West Coast in April, is due next month.
The Department of Conservation said it had received fourteen applications, 12 of which are from local operators.
Special legislation was passed in Parliament earlier this year to allow the recovery of high value native timber blown over in the cyclone on West Coast public conservation land.
The storm caused the worst windfall damage in generations, felling an estimated twenty-thousand hectares of forest and causing significant damage to a further 200,000 hectares.
A panel of Department of Conservation staff, local iwi and the Ministry for Primary Industries have already done an initial assessment of the applications.
Authority is expected to be issued for the timber recovery work, between Hokitika and Karamea, by next month.
