On Tuesday two of our Citizenship Groups, The Eco Explorers and The Outsiders, went to find out about tree felling from Eva at the Forestry Commission who are chopping down trees beside the A9 along from the school.
First we walked to their office to collect hard hats and then we scrambled through a secret tunnel under the motorway which led to the right spot.
We got shown the machine and were told about the wildlife that lives around the area and in the trees.
The machine worked really quickly and weighed 37-40 tons. It burns 70 litres of fuel per hour and has 3 exits, one at the front, one on the side and a hatch on the roof. Aaron who operates the machine told us all about it then we watched in working. It grabbed the tree with pincers and chopped it off at the bottom with a saw. Next the rollers ran up and down stripping off the branches, then it turned the tree on its side and the computer measured it and cut the logs to the right length. Aaron has to look all around him and look out for the poles along the path that show where the gas pipe is.
We all enjoyed our visit, it was really interesting to watch and an exciting thing to see.
Eliza McDonald, Lewis Foster, Rowan Walsh