SafeTree

Fiona’s blog – Thanks for supporting our Dr Tom Mulholland workshops

We completed the 14th Dr Tom workshop in Northland in late August. This was the end of a 3-month national tour that reached more than 1100 foresters face-to-face.

The attendance at each region was really appreciated and I know it means more than a time commitment, but also a financial commitment as you take time off production. I believe it was time well spent learning about health and healthy thinking. We also got a lot of feedback from you about what’s needed to help forestry be successful – and I’ve summarised that below.

Those of you who downloaded Dr Tom’s KYND App will know it’s a useful tool to help you take ownership of your own health. Remember if you get an amber or red light on any of your health indicators please follow up with your doctor or ask someone for help.

Safetree Leadership courses – registrations open

Registrations are now open for the new Safetree Leadership courses that are running in Nelson, Gisborne and Whangarei in October and November.

These courses are for crew owners and managers, foremen, supervisors and anyone else who leads people in forestry. They focus on helping you to lead a high-performance team that focuses on key results, including health and safety.

The courses were developed by Safetree and training experts the Learning Wave, with considerable input and testing from the industry.

See more, including course dates and how to register, on our website.

Toolbox cards a real hit – more cards coming

Our toolbox topic cards have been extremely popular and we’re in the process of sending packs out to everyone who has ordered them.

We’re also working on some new cards suggested by you. There is one on successful work (see the image above), as well as communication, machines on slopes, and machine maintenance.

If you haven’t ordered sets of these cards for yourself and your crews, you can email us at info@safetree.nz with your name, the number of packs you want and your street address (we deliver by courier so can’t use PO Box numbers).

Or take a look at the cards online

Worker certification

Safetree Professional Forest Worker Certification is a great way to get official recognition from the industry that your workers’ skills are still up to date.

Certification confirms they have been independently assessed on the job as able to work safely and professionally. That means they are doing what a WorkSafe inspector would expect to see, and know how to protect themselves and their mates.

Free online tools are available to help Breakers Out and Tree Fallers get ready to go for their certificates.

See more on our website

Feedback from Dr Tom events

Here is some of the top bits of feedback we got from you at the Dr Tom events on what’s needed to improve health and safety. We will use this feedback to help shape future activities.

• More communication
• Better work environment, less pressure
• More H & S awareness workshops – build a good culture – it starts at the top
• Get KYND app out to all staff. Health checks to include HBA1C for checking diabetes
• Thinking better and realising that other people are not doing this to p**s you off
• Reduce paperwork side of things, focus more on people and the tasks they’re doing
• Have an area on skid to chain up and clean truck – also known as the chain-down zone (dependant) on the size of the skid or have an empty skid down road from main skid
• Deal with pressure that occurs when transport and stacking issues mean logs can’t be moved, then when those issues are resolved, crews are expected to move it in short periods of time.