During the National Forest Week event at the Cariboo Fire Centre Wednesday, Nine-year-old Nesika School student Logan Seer said he wished he could stay and camp forever.
“It’s actually been a really fun time. I didn’t think it would be this cool,” Logan said after his group finished visiting with Interior Helicopters Ltd. base manager Devon Goodliffe.
Echoing Logan, student Kayden Ford-Jalbert said he was having a great time.
“It has been a fun experience,” he said.
Organizer George Warr, a forest protection assistant at the Cariboo Fire Centre, said the event saw close to 900 students from 13 schools attend during Tuesday and Wednesday from as far away as Tatla Lake and 100 Mile House.
“It’s been fantastic,” Warr said.
“We have seen a lot of engagement from the kids and we are so proud of how the forestry community has come together.”
The event was hosted on Williams Lake city land by the Cariboo Fire Centre with help from Tolko, West Fraser, the Ministry of Forests district office, Ravens Unit Crew from Alexis Creek, the Invasive Species Council and Scout Island Nature Centre, he added.
“I think all of us helped get the message out on forest health, wildfire prevention and other things. We are all proud and pleased.”
West Fraser brought two giant Jenga games for kids to play with that were a big hit as well.
“It’s been good,” assistant forester Greg Spence said of the day. “All the kids are really interested in learning about wood products.”
Planning forester Zach Fisher said the Jenga game had been a favourite and the students enjoyed learning about different forestry jobs — from the bush to sales.
Serge Gagni, with quality control at Tolko’s Soda Creek division, spent last weekend building a model of a sawmill line out of scrap metal and broken wood for the children to view.
“I also wanted to show them how it’s important for a sawmill to make the best chips and sawdust for byproducts to go to other operations like power and pellet plants.”
Never too late to learn, a group of residents from Retirement Concepts was anticipated to arrive at the end of the day, CFC communications manager Natasha Broznitsky said.
Here Broznitsky explains a diorama created by four members of the CFC's Vesta unit crew.