We attended an open day at the Forestry College near Inverness.  In small groups we visited various stations set up within the campus. The lady at the first station demonstrated how to make a bug hotel using empty plastic bottles filled with leaves and twigs. The next station was all about the protective clothing the forestry workers have to wear.  There is a thin metal mesh inside the clothing so they have protection from the chainsaws. This makes the clothing very heavy! We were allowed to try on the clothing and take a forest selfie.

We were also shown how to make a gazzo from a small piece of wood. This was done by cutting grooves in the wood and placing elastic band down the grooves. They worked really well much to the annoyance of all the staff!

Another station had all the equipment needed for climbing trees and we were given a demonstration on how to cut back the dead wood to allow more light in which is better for the tree and the habitat below.

Then we were off to have a go on a tree harvester simulator. The simulator lets you programme what size of logs are to be cut and lets you place them at the side of the road so they can be picked up easily by the trucks.

There are lots of jobs within Forestry and it was really interesting to see all the different areas you could work in. The college was a lovely modern building with excellent facilities and a fantastic outside classroom to give you lots of hands of experience.