Forestry safety ideas grow

Paul Milliken, Cutover Systems director, is making forestry work safer through his innovations. Photo / Ben Fraser

Forestry safety through innovation has been a hot topic at ForestTECH 2015, with a local engineer helping lead innovation in the industry.

More than 430 forestry managers, forest owners, harvest planners and harvesting contractors from New Zealand, Australia, Chile and North America arrived in Rotorua on Wednesday to attend the two-day Steep Slope Wood Harvesting conference and Forest Industry Safety Summit.

Conference director Brent Apthorp said it was the largest forestry conference held in the country, with the international forestry industry looking to New Zealand's innovations.

He said a number of practical trials and a range of innovations had been developed over the last two years - including controlled mechanical tree felling.

A local engineer and director of Cutover Systems, Paul Milliken, spoke at the event yesterday about a video-assisted, remote-controlled tree-felling system he had been developing in the past two years.

The system has been used by Nelson-based wood contractor Ross Wood for the past month.

"This is our prototype. It is a John Deere 909 converted to a remote control."

The innovation was intended to increase safety and productivity for workers felling trees on steep hills.

"It is an early prototype so we still don't know how far it will go.

"We expect to make adaptations to the design in response to contractors' feedback, it's just a start.

"Two years ago the forestry sector had a bad year for fatalities. High prices for logs and increased productivity put pressures on workers."

Rotorua-based forestry safety advocate Wiremu Edmonds said discussion on improving workers' safety was a step in the right direction.

Mr Edmonds' stepson, Robert Ruri-Epapara, was killed while working in the forest in March 2013. His death prompted Mr Edmonds and his wife Marsella to attempt to prevent more deaths occurring among bush workers and contractors through raising awareness and public speaking.

"Really, safety is about changing people's culture, and about people having the right attitude and behaving in an appropriate way, and having the right resources to do the job.

"Mechanisation has definitely reduced the number of fatalities or serious accidents.

"A lot of leaders in the industry have stepped up and innovation is wonderful."

Serious harm forestry accidents including fatalities

•2008

National: 179

Bay of Plenty: 12

•2009

National: 161

Bay of Plenty: 15

•2010

National: 170

Bay of Plenty: 15

•2011

National: 182

Bay of Plenty: 33

•2012

National: 188

Bay of Plenty: 22

•2013

National: 87

Bay of Plenty: 11

•2014

figures were not available