What do they do?
Harvesting contractors and their workers fell the mature trees, extract them to a processing area and cut the trees into log lengths ready to be shipped to market. They will have a good understanding of health and safety, environmental protection requirements and the forestry supply chain. Workers will have good mechanical skills and be able to operate equipment from chainsaws through to state of the art advanced mechanised felling and processing machines.
A typical day
Often a ten-hour working day; sometimes weekend work is required. There are a mix of jobs to do from preparing the ground, planting, pruning, measuring tree growth, selecting and cutting down trees through to using harvesting machinery, operating loaders, cutting and grading logs and maintaining equipment.
You'll need to be safety conscious, practical and work well in teams.
Sound like you?
- Sciences or Workshop Technologies
- Agriculture or Horticulture
- Physical Education or Health
- Reasonable strength and fitness
- Good initiative/‘can do’ attitude
- Good work habits/time management
- Making or fixing things
- Working with machinery
- Outside (outdoors)
- Different places from time to time
Pathway
These can be useful from school:
Good NCEA Level 1 passes in:
- Maths
- English
Traineeship or apprenticeship
- Forestry Worker
- Logging Worker
- Machine operator
- Tree faller
- Crew manager
- Contractor
- Forest manager