New Canterbury West Coast Wood Council formed

The eighth Wood Council in New Zealand is a combination of forestry, transport, processing, regional councils, contractors, nurseries and Canterbury University School of Forestry. 54 members currently make up this diverse group that has formed to promote the benefits of forestry in our communities, careers in forestry, where our resource goes and what it is used for.

Wood Councils have been around in New Zealand for more than 30 years. They were formed by individual groups in each region to support each other in the sector and provide information to the public and interest groups on forest activities and purpose. It is important to understand how trees function in our landscape.

Trees can be integrated into nearly any other land use and play a vital role in storing carbon and providing carbon neutral products for our customers. In Canterbury and the West Coast some of the Wood Council members own forests and sawmills producing framing timber for houses, wooden pallets and boxes, wood chip for biofuels, MDF, joinery timber and packaging.

Canterbury was one of the first regions to establish plantation trees. Some of those original families are still involved in growing and processing forests today. The West Coast has been based around forestry since the region was first settled. The industry is still a significant contributor to the Coast economy.

The Canterbury West Coast Wood Council has a vision to promote, encourage and coordinate the sustainable economic development of plantation forestry and the wood products sector. The first event for the Wood Council was a visit to Clarkeville School with SML transport where all 200 students viewed a log truck, learned about safety around trucks and listened to a forester talk about a renewable resource, where our logs are going and why.

The Canterbury West Coast Wood Council held its launch ceremony and BBQ afternoon sponsored by Te Uru Rakau at Steam Scene, McLeans Island, Christchurch on 22 October. Over 70 members, their families, students from Canterbury Universtiy and interested parties attended and viewed a demonstration of a restored vintage steam driven sawmill owned by Stoneyhurst sawmill that has been in their family for generations.

If you would like to know more about CWC Wood Council activities please visit www.cwcwc.co.nz or www.facebook.com/cwc.woodcouncil.

Source: CWC Wood Council