The Southern Wood Council has provided a new scholarship alongside its annual apprentice of the year award this year, both to young forestry workers of Otago.
Scholarship recipient Sarah Naylor, who grew up on her family's 283ha farm in Becks, Central Otago, and attended St Hilda's Collegiate School, in Dunedin, is in her second year of study for a forest science degree at the University of Canterbury.
Her scholarship grant is $4500 during the next three years. It is the largest forestry scholarship in the country.
While Ms Naylor is yet make a decision on her career options after graduation, she acknowledges the forestry industry presents wide-ranging opportunities.
"It's a good mix of indoor and outdoor, and there are such a wide range of different jobs in forest management and in wood processing. I'm really enjoying it," she said in a statement yesterday.
Otago and Southland has about 208,000ha of forest, employing about 1500 people in forestry and first stage wood processing, and in the decade to 2010 accounted for $180 million to $200 million in annual exports.
Southern Wood Council chairman Grant Dodson is thrilled the first scholarship has been granted, and believes "Sarah is an excellent example of a young person with a bright future in forestry".
Ryan Honings' apprentice of the year award qualifies him for the National Training Awards competition.
He is one of 50 forestry workers from Otago and Southland to graduate with a national certificate in forestry this year.
The Forestry Industry Training and Education Council (Fitec) graduates gained national certificates in forestry disciplines including silviculture, harvesting and sawmilling, and business skills that cover supervision and leadership qualifications.
Mr Honings is a "log maker" for Gamble Forest Harvesting, a 10-man team which contracts forest harvesting to City Forests Ltd, with the crew at present working in the Silverpeaks Forest.
He started as a school-leaver with no forestry experience, working his way through harvesting and processing roles to reach his present position.
The role of log maker is a key job within a harvesting crew, with responsibility for grading and value recovery of the stem once the tree is extracted from the forestry block.
Fitec regional training adviser Phil Williams said the recent graduation event and award ceremony was a good way of recognising the achievements of the region's wood industry trainees.
Mr Honings' manager, Tony Gamble, said his job required a lot of training, and Mr Honings had to put in a lot of work and push himself to gain the qualifications and experience he needed.
Ms Naylor particularly enjoyed economics and forest growth and measurement studies last year, the latter introducing students to techniques and technologies associated with single tree and stand measurement, surveying, GPS and GIS.
During her last summer break, Ms Naylor worked for Southwood Export Ltd in Invercargill, the country's largest eucalyptus plantation manager, processing pre-harvest forest inventory data from several of the company's Southland forests.
• The annual scholarship is open to second-year students of forest science, engineering, or for those completing a wood processing related degree, who come from Otago or Southland.
