Tall Timber
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Signing off after five decades of forestry Story: Debbie Harrison
M
URRAY BRAITHWAITE IS A FAMILIAR name in the forestry industry. His 52-year career in forestry has seen the industry go from pen and paper to technology, and from axe to mechanised harvesting. After half a century giving his all to forestry, Murray is signing off and retiring. Before he left his role as Forest Operations Manager for Summit Forests for the last time, we grabbed him for a quick Q&A...
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30 NZ LOGGER | March 2022
How did you end up in forestry? My grandfather (who I had a lot of time for) worked in a sawmill pit, sawing timber. He encouraged my decision to work in forestry, telling me it was a growing industry and there would always be work
there. I started as a trainee woodsman in Kaingaroa Forest in January 1970 and spent two years there, learning the basics of the different jobs: planting, pruning, thinning and harvesting. Can you share a brief history of your career? In 1972 I transferred to Forest Research in Rotorua and spent a year there, working in the mensuration department. Here, we measured trees and recorded the measurements to produce volume tables. I then transferred to Rotorua Conservancy Office and joined a team that was Timber Cruising. We measured out sawmill areas and measured all the trees in that area to establish the volume of wood by tree
