Every September for nearly 70 years school children have been coming out to Coronation Forest at Golden Downs near Nelson to plant seedlings that they have been growing.
The programme started in 1953, when local schools were supplied with seedlings to establish their own small nurseries, giving children the chance to be involved in growing their own forest and learning about the importance of the forestry industry. Because 1953 was the year that Queen Elizabeth was crowned, the new forest was named Coronation Forest.
Every year since then, hundreds of children come to Coronation Forest to plant seedlings and learn about plantation forestry by counting and measuring the trees that are ready for harvesting. They also learn about the relationship between plantation and native forests, and the protected native trees and birdlife in the area. It takes just a year for the radiata pine seedlings to grow up as tall as the children!