It was mid-1961 when an advert appeared in all the national and regional newspapers for interested persons to apply for the position of Forest Ranger Trainee with the New Zealand Forest Service (NZFS).
At that time, the NZFS managed and administered the entire publicly owned indigenous and exotic forest estate in the country. The Forest Service required a significant cadre of technical and professional foresters to supervise, plan and manage the operations, the workers and forestry stations throughout the country. There were three distinct levels of professional forestry people who were trained or sponsored by the government. Firstly, there were Woodsmen who were selected from the forest labourer gangs and trained at the Woodsman Schools at Golden Downs Forest in the Nelson District and at Kaingaroa Forest in the Central North Island. Woodsmen were generally employed as labour supervisors and trainers and performed much of the basic skilled forestry work.
Next were the Technical Trainees who were trained at the Forestry Training Centre (FTC) in Rotorua and in various forests to become Forest Rangers. The Forest Rangers generally were involved in all manner of technical forestry operations, personnel training, forest survey and planning, and supervision and management of forest stations. At the third level were the professional Foresters who in earlier years did their forestry degree at Oxford in the UK, but in later years at Canterbury University in New Zealand. The Foresters were the professionals in the forestry business and were involved in forest research and experimentation, and the design and planning of forests among other things.
In 1958, due to the projected demand for more skilled technical and management people to staff the rapidly expanding New Zealand forestry industry, the NZFS introduced the Forest Ranger Trainee Scheme, which was a four-year course of Instruction in forestry, culminating in the NZFS Ranger Certificate. This replaced the previous Technical Trainee scheme with a more complete and professional qualification. The four-year Ranger Trainee scheme started with a six-week induction course at the Forestry Training Centre in Rotorua followed by hands-on forestry experience while living and working at various forest stations located around the country for the remainder of the first year.
Year two commenced with a four-week Hunter Training Course at Dip Flat in the Nelson Lakes region of the South Island. This was the same course that all the government deer cullers were put through prior to their assignment to native forest protection all over the country. The remainder of year two was spent at the Reefton Ranger School on the West Coast of the South Island.
Year three involved timber cruising (surveying) in native forests followed by the bulk of the year at the Rotorua Ranger School at the FTC in Rotorua. In the fourth and final year, the trainees were stationed in various forests all over the country as junior Forest Rangers.
The Ranger Trainee scheme continued for 10 years until 1968 and trained over 250 Forest Rangers. The final intake went through Reefton in 1967.
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