FORESTRY is a brilliant job, but it’s also a dangerous one.
Barely a year passes by without news of injury or – worse still – loss of life. That’s why so many precautions are taken to ensure everyone returns home safely at the end of the day.
This was very much on the agenda of the Forest Machine Operators Blog recently, as members discussed the best approaches to lone working; still a fairly common practice in forestry.
Asking what people are using for lone working, the operator outlined: “Tilhill are having a crackdown at minute and [I] want something better in place.”
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As is typical for the blog (and for forestry), the solutions were varied.
Some were pretty ‘simple’ but effective:
“Text the boss every two hours, or get a group chat on Whatsapp with all the people in the company and text every two hours on that.”
“Our staff message me on arrival, every hour and then on departing site.”
“If I’m on my own on site I text someone every three hours. Natural Resources Wales seem happy with this.”
“We check in no more than every two hours using a Whatsapp set up for that particular site.”
Others, however, detailed how they relied on dedicated equipment, such as Find Me SPOT.
One member outlined: “Find Me SPOT devices are decent and work when there’s no phone signal. Have a few different buttons including check in, come find me, try contact me and SOS which sends the location to the emergency services also.”
Another added: “Find Me Spot works well in poor phone signal areas. The one I have you can send texts as well, but they are expensive to buy plus there’s an annual subscription.
“I think Garmin do something similar cheaper. If there’s signal I just text the Mrs or someone else who knows where you are.”
A Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) was also recommended by users to aid “emergency response in the event of an injury”.
However, some members raised fairly legitimate concerns about lone working and the approaches to it.
“The texting in to a nominated person is okay, but what happens if they get sidetracked for a few hours and forget to check their phone possibly while you are lying injured somewhere?”
While another put it more bluntly: “Who in their right mind would want to work alone in probably the most dangerous jobs going?”
Perfectly illustrating one of the other dangers of working in forestry, a story emerged last month of a couple who were struck by a tree.
Caroline Leafe, 70, was walking along a deer track in Ashdown Forest with her husband, Kenneth, and their dog, Monty, on 25 January 2023 when the pair were hit by a silver birch tree that was being felled.
The Conservators of Ashdown Forest was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £3,589.80 in costs at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 12 August after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The group said in a statement that it fully accepted the findings of the Health and Safety Executive and had implemented improvements to its practices.
However, not everyone was best pleased to hear this.
Sharing Forestry Journal’s account of the news, members in the blog had several gripes to voice.
They included:
“Sounds like there wasn’t a brain to damage if you are walking towards someone felling trees.”
“Sounds like a couple of busy bodies endangering themselves walking down a deer ride towards the sound of chainsaws; couldn’t make it up. Where there is blame, there is a claim.”
Crikey! The public ignoring safety signs and putting themselves in harm’s way is an understandable frustration of forestry, so it’s little surprise to see this touched so many nerves in the blog. It did the same on FJ’s own social media channels (but a gentle reminder the judgement was accepted in full by the Conservators of Ashdown Forest).
Back to less controversial matters and, as always, the blog was a place for advice to be sought.
Two such examples demonstrated that last month.
The first saw one member ask: “Is there a market for oversize ash at the moment? You hear of people sending container loads out to China and other places.
“I’m starting a job with probably 50 tonnes of nice oversize stems. I’d rather not send it off as lower grade firewood.”
One operator was quick to provide some encouragement, writing: “If it’s clean and over 3-m long there is a market.”
He went on to elaborate just what the handcutter would have to keep in mind: “You will need to meet rules and need a site where it can be laid out to be measured, then space to load it into containers.
“But payment is long winded. Personally, I’d sell as oversize.”
Another was equally cautious.
“I reckon felling it this time of year, your sawlog spec stuff will crack open straight away and won’t be much good.”
However, the original poster outlined that it had to be done during the summer due to the wet ground conditions.
“I understand,” the member replied. “I don’t like felling ash in the summer, but like you say otherwise you trash the ground with the tractors.
“I had to do a recent job felling quite big ash on the edge of a semi-formal woodland garden, so had to be done in summer with dry ground. Despite the most careful felling, after cross-cutting most pieces crack into at least four. Like someone else said, oversize firewood might be the easiest option.”
Our second example (and final point from August) concerns a John Deere 1110G.
“Has anyone experienced a creaking/ brake drag noise when turning and only when it’s warm out?” asked one operator. “During the winter or early morning in summer when it’s cool it doesn’t do it. Echoes down the whole machine’s frame and can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from.”
While no one could quite get to the bottom of it, several operators offered pertinent suggestions.
“John Deere forgot to grease our slip shaft in-between the universal joints. There is a grease relief fitting on one end. Removed it and put a 90° grease fitting in and pumped quite a bit of grease into it. Solved our problem so far.”
“Check the grease hose is still connected on the propshaft carrier bearing, had similar with a 1510.”
A few days later, the original poster was back with some news.
“Put a grease fitting in the end of the drive shaft in the centre and fixed 90 per cent of the noise. It still does it a little bit and has a squeak when turning full lock to the right.”
Still, that sounds like progress to us!
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