Rain or shine

During the last week, we had 3 field activities with forestry students of the University of Canterbury: two trips to Bottle Lake Forest with first years doing Forest Mensuration and a trip to Amberley with second years doing Introduction to Silviculture.

The weather was spectacular for a winter day in Amberley, where Shaf van Ballekom, manager of Proseed, showed us the seed orchard and their propagation work. It’s a great connection between Ngāi Tahu Farming and the School of Forestry.

In contrast, the weather was subdued during our first visit to Bottle Lake when learning to establish prism plots. Later, it was cold (near 0°C) with some rain and even hail during our second visit to practice flexible timber cruising. We had good conversations with students, sorting out why things were working well or not working when compared to the classroom. Kudos to Matt Deering (School of Forestry) for helping me with 48 students in the mensuration activity.

Cute detail: a few students thought that the last activity was going to be cancelled because it was cold and rainy. I pointed out the course outline and first lecture: activities run “rain or shine” (unless it affects the safety of the activity). Warm clothes, rain gear and a thermos with a hot drink go a long way towards enjoyable time in the field.