"His friend killed him at work. His friend was the leader. He took a shortcut and he got it wrong that day. It came at the expense of our losing a child," Mr Edmonds said.
He and his wife Marsella dug deep and forgave the man who felled that tree "because the gap needed to be bridged". In January the logging company responsible for Mr Epapara's death, Complete Logging Limited, was fined $60,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $75,000 by the Rotorua District Court.
Mr Edmonds has worked in the bush himself, and has been voted the forestry industry representative in ACC's new injury prevention programme.
His mission to talk about forestry safety has taken him as far as South Africa on speaking engagements. But he said policies on paper were no substitute for face-to-face relationships when battling as a safety warrior.