New building extends forest discovery centre for school children

31/5/00
Environment Minister Cheryl Edwardes has officially opened the Wellington Discovery Forest's new centre.
The centre - a rammed-earth building attached to a former forestry cottage - will enable the Department of Conservation and Land Management to extend its popular schools forest activities to the Bunbury-Collie region, as well as introduce a range of programs for the public.
The Wellington Discovery Forest covers 650ha but is located within an area of 27,000ha of State Forest, National Park and Conservation Park.
This area contains a diverse range of environments - native forest, pine plantations, the Wellington Dam, the rugged lower Collie Valley, forested highlands and granite outcrops. In fact, it is a microcosm of much of the South-West forest region.
It is part of the South-West Development Commission's Living Windows nature-based tourism promotion, which encourages visitors and residents to discover the nature of Western Australia.
Mrs Edwardes said the extension of the schools program to the South-West was a particularly welcome initiative.
"For many years, CALM has run Exploring The Hills Forest programs at Mundaring. The popularity of these programs can be gauged by the fact that last year, 18,000 students and teachers took part," she said.
"Initially, two programs will be run - Discovering Wellington Forest and Threatened Species. Over the next few weeks, CALM will be hosting professional development days for teachers to provide them with an overview of the programs, as well as giving them some hands-on experience in activities such as monitoring native mammals.
"I am sure that this initiative will become extremely popular as it fits in with the overall vision for the centre to be a unique educational and recreational resource to raise the level of understanding of the jarrah forest and its management needs."
Mrs Edwardes paid tribute to Don Spriggins, a former Central Forest Region manager with CALM, who was the prime motivator behind the Wellington Discovery Forest.
Mr Spriggins had long believed that the best place to communicate with people about forests and their management was in the forest itself.
And the best way of doing this was in an area of forest that was managed specifically for interpretation and education - in other words, a Discovery Forest.
In 1989, Mr Spriggins was awarded a fellowship from the Gottstein Memorial Trust, which is the national educational trust of the Australian Forest Products Industry. He travelled to Canada and America to study the planning and development of similar forest education and interpretation projects.
Mrs Edwardes said that while the project evolved slowly, the launch of the South-West Ecomuseum Program by the South-West Development Commission in 1993 provided a welcome boost. Over the next five years, the commission provided almost $123,000 to help develop the concept. Other supporters had been the Dardanup Shire, Koppers Australia and the Leschenault Hoo Hoo Club.
Mrs Edwardes acknowledged the role the Wellington Forest Advisory Committee had played. This committee is a joint community, State Government and local government group created by the South-West Development Commission that in the past year has provided guidance and support not only for the Wellington Discovery Forest but also for other developments such as the Potter's Gorge tourist project.
Media contacts: Ministerial: Steve Manchee 9421 7777
CALM: Drew Griffiths 9734 1988