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Shelterbelt guru - Peter Smail FNZIF
Authors: Bill StudholmePublication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2012, Issue N.Z.J.For. 57(2) 2012, pp 45-46, Aug 2012
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: Shelterbelt guru - Peter Smail FNZIF Peter Smail has left a huge legacy for the New Zealand forestry sector and particularly farm forestry. After leaving school in 1939 and avoiding the banking career that his father had mapped out for him, Peter, the city boy, headed out to the country to start a farming apprenticeship near Methven. Peter was born into a large Christchurch family who, when he had talked them around, were very supportive of his chosen farming career. For the first three years after leaving school Peter worked as a musterer and general farm hand up the Rakaia Gorge. His love of farming developed then, as did his appreciation of the debilitating effects of the ubiquitous North West wind that blew constantly out of the gorge.