Key forestry leaders met to discuss ways to communicate career opportunities to younger generations. Sources: The Border Watch, ABC Rural
Winner of the 2013 Victorian Rural Women’s Award Michelle Freeman facilitated the session as part of her Turn Over a New Leaf event series.
Freeman, who ran the first session at the Main Corner Complex in Mount Gambier on Wednesday, will hold similar events across Australia.
She said she aimed to encourage the older generation to attract new people into the industry.
“Part of that is better communication within the industry,” Freeman said.
“We have amazing opportunities within forestry, but we are not effectively communicating that to the younger generation.”
Freeman said that there are many misperceptions about her career.
“Whenever I tell people that I am a forester I usually get one of three responses,” she said.
“One of them is that I am a logger, rape and pillager kind of person; the other one is that I must be a hard-core greenie tree hugger type person; and then I’ve also been told that, ‘Ah, forestry, is that about arranging flowers?’
“So these ideas about what a forester is are really just so different and it sort of proves to me that we haven’t very done well at communicating about what a forester is.”
The series also seeks to change forestry’s negative image due to the current economic climate.
“A lot of what you see and hear is all the negative stories, but the forestry profession is much broader than timber production,” she said.
“There are struggling markets at the moment, which is a challenge, but that is not going to be the same way forever.”
She said there were opportunities available for those willing to think outside the square.
“Foresters have so many skills and we need to manage forests for a variety of reasons,” she said.
“Water, fire, agro forests, with trees on farms and how they can be a positive asset to improving the health and productivity of farms, and the role of carbon and biodiversity.”
This week’s session also involved a panel of industry employees from the South East, including 21-year-old Courtney Pink, who is working for Timberlands.
Pink, who studied at Mount Gambier’s Southern Cross University, said there had been endless job prospects.
“I think forestry is a great industry to be involved in and I’d love more people my age to consider a career in the sector,” Pink said.
“There are so many opportunities and I have been lucky to be where I am today.”
Freeman is using part of her $10,000 Rural Women’s Award prize money to hold the events, which will run from 1 August 1 until 30 September this year.
For more information visit www.turnoveranewleaf.eventbrite.com.au
