Future Foresters ramp up resilience
The next generation of foresters have got the health and wellbeing of New Zealand’s forestry industry in their sights and are playing an active role in improving outcomes for all foresters.
Rayonier Matariki Forests’ graduate forester, Katie Yallop, is part of a young foresters group who are bringing a fresh and youthful perspective to the industry.
Future Foresters is a community for foresters starting out on their careers that provides connection and advocacy for newcomers to the industry.
Katie who is Central North Island Regional Leader of Future Foresters, was part of the organising committee that recently held mental health workshops in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay, focussing on resilience.
"This year has been a tough and challenging one for many, including our forestry industry,” says Katie. “We thought an event aimed at building resilience would be timely.”
The 'Thriving at Work' workshop explored how to support foresters to thrive and not simply survive with techniques on managing the way they work and developing practical habits for improving physical and mental wellbeing.
“If people are the bedrock of the success to any forestry operation, then our mental wellbeing is of utmost importance,” says Katie.
“People who work in the forest industry are typically pretty strong and a tight-knit group but events like these are great for taking a breath and coming together as a group to reflect, regain strength and hopefully learn new skills.”
The event was facilitated by Dr Hillary Bennet, registered psychologist and Director of Leading Safety, a consultancy specializing in the leadership of safety and wellbeing. In her role she carries out the assessment and development of safety and wellbeing culture, human factors, and workplace health and safety.
She developed the New Zealand Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum's mental health and wellbeing guides and in 2019 was awarded the NZ SafeGuard Lifelong Contribution to Health and Safety Award for her contribution to safety leadership in the NZ Forest Industry.
The events were attended by all ages from younger foresters to veterans and everyone took something away from the sessions.
Harry Dinneen, Technical Forester at Forest Management NZ is Future Foresters representative in Hawkes Bay and organised and attended the event in the region.
“The course came at just the right time for a lot of us who were coming out of the aftermath of the cyclone in the Hawkes Bay region. Dr Bennet’s set of mental tools to help foresters tackle everyday challenges and the ability to put these different situations into perspective, were invaluable,” said Harry.
A further workshop in Wairarapa is being planned for early 2024.