The forest has always been a special place for Kiana Sayer-White. And with her father, Aaron, and older brother, Kasey, being in the industry, you could say forestry is in her blood.
But throughout her early years of school, that wasn’t where she was heading. For a long time, she planned a future in farming. Despite being accepted for university, the love of the forest kept chipping away at Kiana, and towards the end of school, she decided to try and get into forestry – knowing it was going to be more of a challenge to secure a role there than in farming.
It was work experience that cemented Kiana’s logging plans. Her dad reached out to Shaun Erni and organised a two-week placement for her with Shaun’s SMH Logging crew. Kiana hadn’t met Shaun before, but knew his team, having visited their site a few times over the years with her dad.
That was in November 2023, and Kiana started full-time work with SMH just a week after finishing school.To read more, get your copy of the May 2026 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 4 May. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).
