WT + NELSON FORESTS
Ryan Williamson qualified as a maintenance engineer six years ago, having done his apprenticeship at the sawmill. “I started here just before I turned 17. I’ve been here coming up 11 years now. “I live locally, so I just rode my pushbike down and put in a CV and started the next day … at the time, I didn’t realise the opportunities that were here. “I’ve done speedway and built my own race cars. I’ve always enjoyed engineering and pulling things apart. Working here gives me an opportunity to better myself and add to what I can do. “I wouldn’t change anything about the job. It’s a very good job. The only thing that
I want to do is continuously further myself and find the next step in my career.”
Helping the company grow
Ricky McKnight is six weeks into his apprenticeship and says that it’s brilliant. “It’s really enjoyable. Everyone’s really easy to get on with.” Ricky says he is looking forward to finishing his apprenticeship and then working his way around a few other tickets and modules. “I want to improve on my skills and help the company grow, so I can be here for bigger and better things. “I would recommend it here. It’s a really good place to learn. They really look after you.”
“It’s a really good place to learn. They really look after you.” RICKY MCKNIGHT
General Manager at Kaituna Sawmill Tracy Goss is encouraging people to get in touch and make the most of opportunities for trade training at the mill. “If you or someone you know might be interested in a career at Kaituna Sawmill, the time to make an enquiry is right now. Get in touch with me and we can talk to you about where an apprenticeship can lead.”
Forest with a family connection B Y C AT H I E B E L L P H O T O G R A P H Y M A R K F O R WA R D
I
t’s a stunning day up on the ridges of Coronation Forest in Golden Downs, south of Richmond. There’s a lot of chatter as 74 school children aged 10 and 11 gather to begin a day’s activities in the forest. Coronation Forest has a long-standing connection with the Nelson Tasman community. The forest is run by Nelson Forests Ltd, and each year in September, the company hosts about 300 children across a week to plant seedlings, understand the relationship between indigenous forest and plantation forest, and learn about how a plantation forest works. It’s the 65th year of planting at Coronation Forest, and now there are children taking part whose parents and grandparents took part when they were their age. When Nelson Forests’ Heather Arnold asks if any of the parents supervising took part, half the adults there raise their hands. And it’s not just the parent-helpers – one of the forestry staff supervising is Barry Walsh. He remembers planting trees at Coronation Forest when he was at Waimea Intermediate School. His son took part in planting while at school and is now working in a harvesting crew on
the next hill over. Barry’s daughter-in-law Saraya Walsh also works in forestry and is at the school event supervising. His grandson came with his school group this year to take part.
Intergenerational forest
Coronation Forest was the idea of Arnold Cork, who was the Senior Agricultural Instructor for the Nelson Education Board in the early 1950s, Heather Arnold says. “He realised that forestry was destined to play a major role in the New Zealand economy and thought that the best way for children to appreciate this was for them to be involved in their own forest,” says Heather. In 1953 schools were given a supply of tree seeds to establish their own small
Above: Barry Walsh, his daughter in-law Saraya Walsh and her sons Jack (left) and Ryan (right)
nurseries to raise seedlings and supply tree stocks for planting the following year. As the seedlings were grown during the year that Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, the forest was named Coronation Forest. The seedlings were then planted in Coronation Forest in 1954, covering six hectares. Douglas-fir seedlings were planted by 712 children from 20 schools across the Nelson Tasman region. Since then, planting at Coronation Forest has occurred every year. Heather Arnold says there were many Coronation Forests set up nationally, but she thinks that Golden Downs is the only one still active. 73