Northland Wood Council, Holmes Group and Summit Forests New Zealand Limited partnered with Discovery Forestry to deliver the “Wood is Good’ programme to Peria School, near Kaitaia. This primary school programme has been developed to teach students about the plantation forest cycle, wood products and safety around large road vehicles.
Summit has recently started harvesting near Peria School which has increased logging truck traffic driving past their front gate. Although these rural children are used to seeing stock trucks and milk tankers, it is always good to remind them how to act safely around large vehicles. The crucial messaging is: Be safe, be seen, make sure drivers can see you.
The children were very excited to see the 44-tonne loaded logging truck pull into their school. We started with a classroom presentation about deforestation and the important role plantation forests play in providing wood for products we use every day like houses, furniture, pencils, books, toilet paper, and a lot more. We talked about how trees are planted, grown and harvested, and then replanted in a renewable cycle that stores carbon, filters water, stabilises soil, provides habitat for lots of indigenous species and jobs for lots of locals. Forests are also great playgrounds to run, ride mountain bikes or horses, and hunt pigs. We can all enjoy forests and protect them by not lighting fires or dumping rubbish.
The truck safety presentation discussed different types of large road vehicles, how they move differently to cars, where the blind spots are, the noise, spray and wind they can make. To keep safe, we need to keep well back and wear bright clothing. Hook, Holmes’ truck driver, demonstrated how trucks move around corners and how trailers track. There is nothing quite like getting up close to a loaded logger to realise just how big they are so it was a real highlight to take the children to see the truck to work out the blind spots and how to keep safe. They all got to sit in the cab, look in the mirrors and toot the horn.
We appreciated the hospitality of Peria School to deliver this important message. We all live, raise our families and work in this community and we love plantation forests so it’s important to all of us that everyone can be safe, be seen.