Year 10 students from Gisborne's Campion College made history by being the first group of Tairāwhiti students allowed into a commercial forest to see how it works. The students are pictured at Knapdale Eco Lodge, which was a stop on the way home.
Year 10 students from Gisborne's Campion College made history by being the first group of Tairāwhiti students allowed into a commercial forest to see how it works. The students are pictured at Knapdale Eco Lodge, which was a stop on the way home.
Million-dollar machines were halted at a forestry skid site so Year 10 Campion College students could see what happened during a harvest.
It’s the first time Tairāwhiti students have been taken inside a commercial forest for many years.
The field trip was hosted by Erica Kinder from the not-for-profit industry-funded programme Discover Forestry NZ.
A big part of the education programme was giving the teachers and students a good time and understanding how whole forest systems worked, she said.
“We want to show people what happens in a forest, rather than keep it behind the closed gates of the past. It also shows them different career pathways available in the industry.
“Forestry is so important to our economy. It brings in $6.7 billion a year to New Zealand, which is seven times more than viticulture,” Kinder said.
It is the 17th field trip of its kind Kinder has hosted this year around New Zealand, but the first in Tairāwhiti after being invited by Eastland Wood Council with backing from Tairāwhiti foresters and Turanga Ararau.
Buses took the students to three stops along Waingake Rd just out of Gisborne: a young forest for pruning experience, a stream for water testing and a logging site.
The final stop was Knapdale Eco Lodge, an agroforestry block off Back Ormond Rd.
Forest Enterprises manager Jeramiah Te Kira helps Campion College student Madeline Poulter check for clarity of the water from a stream running beside Waingake Rd as part of the students' forestry experience.
Campion student Riley Marshall, 15, said the field day had a positive impact on how she saw things in forestry: “trees are important”.
Year 10 student Francesca Grant, 14, said initially forestry had sounded boring “but there are so many different parts of forestry you can work in. It made me think about working in water testing.”
Forest Enterprises regional manager Warren Rance went along to share his knowledge, including the importance of pruning. He showed the students how to prune before handing out loppers so they could have a go.
At a stream downhill, students used testing kits to check the water clarity and temperature and whether there were any bugs in the water - a good sign.
Rance said streams were regularly checked and tested “to see how we’re doing in the hills above it and so that we can make changes if needed”.
“We proudly look after our environment and a good indication is healthy water in and leaving our forests.”
Also along for the day was Forest Enterprises manager Jeramiah Te Kira, who shared his story.
Originally from Ūawa/Tolaga Bay on the East Coast, Te Kira initially got into forestry as a roading contractor.
After a year he moved into harvesting for three years before heading to Rotorua to study for a Forest Management Diploma. He’s back home in a management role and “just loving it”.
Campion teacher Jon Barry said the trip “rocked” while teacher aide Sam Jones said it was great - “27 years living in Gisborne and I’d never been to a forest like this”.
Campion College's Carl Capuno got the award for competency after pruning seven trees during a field trip to a commercial forestry enterprise at Waingake.
The students were allowed to hop on modern, million-dollar air-conditioned machines at a forestry skid site on Waingake Rd being managed by Blake Speirs. He leads one of New Zealand’s top logging crews, who harvest 700 to 750 tonnes of logs a day, which fills around 23 to 25 truckloads.
A school group had not visited their work site before and his crew went away feeling better about the job they did, too, he said.
Ruapani Forestry Centre – Turanga Ararau, based on Childers Rd in Gisborne, was represented by forest training manager Henry Mulligan, who brought along two of his tutors and a student.
Mulligan heads the forestry training division of Turanga Ararau which offers the Whakatiputanga Ngahere New Zealand Diploma in Forest Management and the Generation Programme in Gisborne.
Mulligan said diploma graduates had gone on to hold management positions in the industry while the Generation Programme “presents a pathway into paid employment for any level of mahi”.
Forestry student Jayden Knowles, 16, of Gisborne, is following in the footsteps of other whānau members, including his grandfather the late Hoot Knowles - a renowned figure in woodchopping circles.
Forestry student Jayden Knowles shared his story with the students, telling them he had always wanted to get into the industry and follow in the footsteps of his family.
Knowles left school at 15 for a job in forestry. Now 16, he’s still working hard, studying for his digger licence and Level 2 and 3 health and safety tickets, and wants his own logging crew in a few years.
His grandfather, the late Hoot Knowles, was renowned in woodchopping circles while the Knowles family has been managing logging operations in the district for years.
The last stop of the day was to meet Kees Weytmans at Knapdale Eco Lodge at Snowsill Road.
Weytmans is part of the Farm Foresters Association and he is passionate about trees.
“There are a whole lot of reasons why we plant trees - it’s not just to cut them down,” he told the students. “However, if you’re talking trees, you’re thinking soil. Soil is the most important thing the human race can have. Without soil we have nothing. You do everything possible to keep the dirt.”
- Sophie Rishworth is a freelance writer for Eastland Wood Council
