Young forester's future shines bright

This award seeks to recognize the achievements and dedication of a young forester who has gone above and beyond in their workplace, their forestry community, and represents the values of FRESTRA and Future Foresters.

Sarah was delighted with the FRESTRA Young Forester of the Year Award and says she was completely surprised.

“There are a lot of deserving young people contributing to our industry and to the communities where we’re all working.  To be recognised by my peers is a great honour,” says Sarah.

“I really enjoy being a part of such a dynamic industry.  I didn’t know about forestry until I stumbled upon the degree at university.  It is such a diverse sector and there are endless career options.  Being able to share the great things about my role and the wider industry with high school students will hopefully ensure they are aware of what is out there and that it could be the perfect job for them,” continued Sarah.

Sarah started with Rayonier Matariki Forests as a graduate in Invercargill and after nearly six years with the company she is now taking on the role of Harvest and Roading Planner in Canterbury.

Alongside her day job, Sarah has been a strong advocate for the forestry industry, visiting schools to raise awareness of the opportunities in forestry and participating in the Wood is Good programme.  She is also a Board member of Discover Forestry and a valuable member of the Southern Wood Council.  Sarah was also a Future Foresters Regional Leader for three years.

Future Foresters co-founder and head judge, Alfred Duval, says there was an incredible calibre of applications spread from Northland to Southland.

“While it was a difficult task to select the winner, Sarah has shown an incredible ability to learn and perfect any part of the forest she is placed in,” says Alfred.  “Whether it’s establishment, silviculture, roading, harvesting, planning, she has dived in and given it her all. The supporting letters for her nomination were filled with acknowledgements and praises of her abilities, attitude and desire to always go the extra mile,” continued Alfred.

“The tremendously challenging task of choosing the first awardee has showcased that the standard of young foresters in NZ should fill us all with pride. Our industry has an extremely bright future with all the motivated, skilled, and driven young foresters amongst us.”

Sarah received an impressive award which was designed and made by Alfred Duval and engineer Peter Sclare from a piece of Red Beech generously gifted by Angus McKenzie, a young forester, based in Canterbury, who supplies specialty timbers to the New Zealand market.  Elements from the old NZ Forest Service logo have been used as a nod to the past and acknowledgement to all the foresters who have laid the foundations for the industry today.

 In addition, Sarah received $1000 cash and $1000 to go towards a field trip anywhere in New Zealand, hosted by a local Future Foresters member.

The award is made possible by the acts of the previous Forest Service and the outgoing FRESTRA club, and now continued on by NZIF and Future Foresters.

The FRESTRA club (named after its telex address) was formed in 1982 and located on campus at Forest Research Institute (now Scion) with the purpose of connecting the forestry community in Rotorua.

Aside from providing social connection, FRESTRA’s other key objectives centred around providing a contact point for ex-Forest Service staff, promoting the recording of forest history and contributing to public forestry awareness. Unfortunately, due to dwindling membership, the club was disestablished in 2021 and its assets sold which included a bach at Papamoa that had been gifted to FRESTRA by the outgoing NZ Forest Service social club.

The FRESTRA Club, Future Foresters and NZIF collectively agreed to gift the funds from FRESTRA to Future Foresters for the sole use by Future Foresters. The funds are to be used under agreed and guiding principles around fostering forestry community, recording forest history, forestry promotion and young forester development. A specific part of the terms of the gift was to create a special award to pay homage to the FRESTRA name, recognising the history of the endowment, and to ultimately reward a talented young forester.