WFI Bids Farewell to Australian Nathan Trushell

After completing his six-month Fellowship, Nathan had the following to say:

“It is easy to get caught up in your own forestry world at home; fortunately I recognized this and took the opportunity to participate in the WFI program. I would have to say it has opened my eyes to a much bigger global forestry sector, which is good because that was one of the things that I wanted from the program.

I knew that the US was the world’s largest wood producer, but it is only when you get here and try to get your head around this immense forestry sector that you appreciate how big it really is. And including Canada really gets your head spinning. In six months there is no way you can expect to cover everything, you can only get a slice of this highly diverse industry.

Because forestry has some serious reputation issues in Australia I was interested in looking at communication strategies that support the forest products sector. Unfortunately, there is no magical solution but I did learn about some of the strategies and trends being employed here. There is a lot of good work going on, but like Australia the challenges of a large and highly fragmented forest sector still exist.

If I was on a polygraph right now I would have to tell you that travel featured fairly high on my list of reasons for coming to the US. My family and I had the chance to travel around the PNW, the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia, the east coast from New York to Memphis and northern California. We are now embarking on our departure via Arizona, California and Hawaii. Outside the PNW it would be hard to beat the Canadian Rockies for scenery and the high paced atmosphere of New York. Of course, all of this was not just for pleasure as I met with many forest sector professionals during these trips.

It was not only me that enjoyed this time, my wife Helen and daughters Alex and Megan also had a great time. So much so that we are still trying to work out how to get all the stuff they accumulated back home.

One of the great things about the WFI Fellowship program is the chance to get to know the other fellows from other parts of the world and of course the staff at WFI. We had some great laughs and I will look forward to catching up with many of them in the future.”