Over 500 industry leaders met in Rotorua and Melbourne for the 2017 Forest Safety Summit. Their objective; to learn about the very latest in forest safety practices and initiatives that have been developed and used in the workplace. 

The event saw a wide range of new safety technologies showcased. The speed of adoption by practical forestry people was extremely encouraging. Many innovators provided a detailed overview of the safety outcomes and resuits for their teams and clients. 

For the first time, FIEA has teamed up with the Forest Industry Safety Council (FISC) to organise a workshop as part of the Safety Summit. A series of workshops and panel sessions enabled a lot of interaction – from the forest floor to the CEOs.

Two key technology speakers where:

• Richard Lawler, Director of Engineering, Forestry for John Deere Forestry from USA. Richard has worked closely with developments in steep slope harvesting in both North America and New Zealand.
• Jim French is an industry solutions specialist across Australasia for Teletrac Navman. For over 20 years he has shared his passion for GPS asset tracking with practical contractors to satisfy their needs.

Nathan Trushell, Acting CEO VicForests, said that the summit is a great way to remind industry of the importance of keeping their employees safe at work. “Safety is the most important part of our jobs within the forestry industry,” Mr Trushell said. “I can’t stress enough the responsibility we all hold to ensure each and every one of our workers can come to a safe work environment every day and make it home to their family each night”.

“It is our overarching goal to achieve zero harm in everything we do. We made great strides towards this goal last year by reaching a period of 12 consecutive months without any staff lost time injuries as well as a 50 percent reduction in contractor lost time injuries”.

“However, forestry is a dangerous job and our operations and activities must always be carried out with safety in mind. Safety needs to be at the core of everything we do to minimise the risk and ensure we have a safe workforce”.

The Forest Safety Summit was all about creating a culture of safety. A major take-away from the event was how a positive safety culture moves beyond training. Companies need to regularly review practices and consider new and improved ways to go about doing our jobs. Most importantly, it is the role of all of us to show leadership within our organisations to ensure we drive a culture of safety for the sake of our staff, our families and our businesses.