Coronation Forest, an area of native and pine plantation within Golden Downs Forest near Nelson in New Zealand hosts an annual education and tree planting day out for local primary school children. Source: Timberbiz
The annual event is provided free of charge to visiting schools with staff and former staff of OneFortyOne taking the children through their tree planting paces, guiding them on a forest walk through a native forest area within the estate, and providing them with the opportunity to learn more about the technology used to measure trees.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, a smaller scale event was still able to be held this year, allowing OneFortyOne to continue the event’s 65-year legacy.
Participating schools this year were Dovedale School, Riwaka School, Tasman Bay Christian School, Wakefield School, Brightwater School, and Birchwood School.
Dovedale School teacher Paula Finch says that the day was an important one for her students who have recently been learning about the importance of planting native trees and protecting waterways.
“The event was really well organised,” Ms Finch said. “We were up there with Riwaka School, which was exciting for our kids, but because of COVID-19 protocols we weren’t able to interact with them. A couple of schools had pulled out, so we really appreciate that OneFortyOne still ran the event. It’s a good, informative day for the kids.”
Ms Finch said that several of her students’ dads have jobs in the forestry industry and it was good for them to see the environment where their parent worked. The group learnt a lot and she said that it was good to learn that so much of the harvested resource stays local.
“The bushwalk with Rex Marshall really sparked the kids up. Rex took the kids through a block of protected native trees within the forest and shared great information about the different plants, insects and birds in the area. He said he was impressed by what the kids already knew which was great for me as their teacher,” Ms Finch said.
“The kids also enjoyed seeing how the diameter and density of the trees was measured and this was a good link for the science activities we have been doing in class recently. We were surprised by how much technology was involved.”
