Diploma opens doors to a brighter future
Jeremy was born in Hastings but he spent most of his childhood in the Scottish Highlands.
His family moved around often, but in each new town or city, Jeremy was always drawn to the outdoors. At the end of his schooling, he enrolled in a one-year practical forestry and chainsaw course in Inverness. There he had a taste of real Highland forestry, including camping out and planting trees on the Isle of Skye.
He returned to New Zealand at 18 and worked for the next five years with harvesting crews in the Hawkes Bay and Kinleith, felling radiata pine.
With time Jeremy felt he had the potential to progress to the next level, so he enrolled on the two year Forest Management programme at the Waiariki Institute of Technology in Rotorua.
Jeremy said it was a bit of a struggle to adjust to fulltime study again, but it was a good learning curve and he has enjoyed the programme.
Two years later, with expanded forestry knowledge, computing skills, analysis and report writing skills to add to his practical experience, he will take the step up into supervising overs.
Following completion of the course, he will begin work as a contract harvesting supervisor for Matariki Forest Trust/ Rayonier in the Hawkes Bay. He will supervise harvesting crews and his work will include log quality auditing, health and safety auditing and production monitoring.
He said he was excited about the opportunity to fulfil his goals, and the challenge his new role offers. Jeremy has not stopped climbing yet though: One day he would like to work as a harvest planner.