Two benches presented to a Llandudno school set the pupils off on a journey that took them from a snowbound Gwydyr Forest to the Mostyn Estate Sawmill, near Flint.
The children, who attend Ysgol Bodafon, were given a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the complete life cycle of our forests and learned how timber is a renewable resource with many uses.
Accompanied by Forestry Commission Wales Education Officer Helen John, about 30 children aged between nine and 11 visited part of the Assembly-owned forest, just above Penmachno, and were given the opportunity to see inside a £250,000 harvesting machine which cuts down the trees.
This was followed by a visit to the Mostyn Estate, where Estates Forester Richard Davies showed them around Mostyn Hall – whose energy is powered by biofuel from wood grown on the estate – before giving the children a demonstration of the many uses of wood at the sawmill.
Prior to the visits the children had taken part in the first step of the never-ending cycle of forestry when they planted 20 broadleaved trees around the benches by an outdoor learning area in the school grounds, thereby discovering another benefit of trees – providing shelter from the elements and shade from the sun.
The benches which sparked off this voyage of discovery, which was organised by Helen and funded by the Forest Education Initiative, were made by a local woodworker using local native trees.
The experience enabled the children to complete their trees for shelter project, covering many curriculum areas such as Language (discussion and questions), Science (handling living things and identification) and Maths (tree-spacing).
The head teacher, Raymond Miles, said the visits had been a valuable learning experience for the children and had helped to introduce the concept of sustainable development in an understandable way.
“Through the Forest Education Initiative, the children have been able to take lessons from the real world which would not have been possible within the confines of a classroom,” he said.
“Children need stimulation to help them learn and many of them returned saying that the harvesting site visit was the best school trip they had ever had.”
As well as seeing a harvester felling some trees during their visit to the Forestry Commission Wales-managed forest, the children learned about measuring trees, site safety, protecting soil with brash mats and how timber is stacked.
Education Officer Helen John said, “The visits gave the children hands-on experience of the entire process of sustainable forest management, from planting all the way through to the final timber product.
“The visits helped the children to understand that if forests are managed responsibly, they can provide jobs, homes for wildlife, help to alleviate climate change and provide us with high quality timber products.”
