In the heart of New Zealand’s forests, a quiet revolution is taking root. Not in the machinery or the markets, but in the minds of young learners and seasoned loggers alike. Discover Forestry – a national initiative launched three years ago – is turning school field trips into powerful tools for education, connection, and industry transformation. Thanks to a small, dedicated team of forestry educators and with backing from industry.
Discover Forestry invites secondary school students into the forest, not for a casual stroll among the trees, but for hands-on immersion into the world of sustainable logging. They might measure trees, check the water quality and invertebrate life in a creek, and even visit a nursery or sawmill.
Hosted by local forestry crews, forestry companies and the wider forestry community, these trips offer students a rare glimpse into the lifecycle of a production forest, from seedling to sawmill.
Students and teachers don hard hats and high-vis, meet logging crews and witness harvesting operations up close. They learn about native species, erosion control, replanting strategies, and the science behind water quality testing, as well as the many ways trees and forests are measured and mapped. For many, it’s their first time seeing the balance between economic productivity and ecological stewardship.
So far for 2024 and 2025, Discover Forestry has delivered 20 bus trips for nearly 600 year 10 to 13 students and their teachers, to forests from Northland to Te Anau.
To read more, get your copy of the October 2025 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 6 October. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).
