Forestry Work

[terryd 8,467]

Just curious about you folks that still work in the forestry tree felling etc. When I used to do it about 17,18 years ago you didn't need any paper work just turn up grab a saw or jump in any bit of machinery and drive off down the nearest death defying slope no problems.

But nowadays do you need to be paper worked upto the hilt just to get out the car ? or can you still fell trees with out

Edited February 8, 2017 by terryd

[forest of dean redneck 11,612]

I guess you need certification for chainsaws and health n safety coming out your ears.

[terryd 8,467]

yea I did the course back then but it wasn't compulsory or legally required. (and it was a waste of time)

Edited February 8, 2017 by terryd

[waz77 15]

Yes it's full on now on most sites, ticketed up to the eyeballs with regular refreshers. You might get away with it on a few smaller private estates but the FC sites are stringent

[terryd 8,467]

thought as much, thank you

[greg64 2,837]

Just curious about you folks that still work in the forestry tree felling etc. When I used to do it about 17,18 years ago you didn't need any paper work just turn up grab a saw or jump in any bit of machinery and drive off down the nearest death defying slope no problems.

But nowadays do you need to be paper worked upto the hilt just to get out the car ? or can you still fell trees with out

i worked in the forestry for years as a tree feller in the 1980s hard work and not lot of money but really enjoyed it ,like you say no paper work just grabbed a saw and tuned up,.worked with one lad who really worked fast but looked like a patch work quilt he was covered in that many scars ,its a dangerous job especially if you were felling on a slope , used to do a lot of work doing fire breaks ,I used to work for a sub contractor for the forestry commission basically all the out of the way places that were dangerous that that they didn't want to do themselves ,used to get bit to death in summer by midges sweating like a twat in your ballistics or freezing in the winter as soon as you stopped because of he sweat , we used to hide when the forestry guy came round half of us did,t have any safety gear at all

[The one 8,482]

I used to work for the forestry commission firstly as a tractor driver in a nursery and got sent on courses but if you passed it was added to your green card i did a three months at Inverness collage to get my foremans qualification and had chain saw , mobile peeler etc etc even for driving the transit you had to sit a course and another for pulling a trailer , but when the nursery shut down the qualifications counted for sod all on the outside but by then i had move to being a forest ranger and you didnt need a licence then as the boss had a licence for all the guns .

I remember one of the boys took a bad hit in his pick up from somebody rallying threw the woods and the police had a special section at the rear of there book that just applied to the forestry commission im talking about 30 years ago and even then the contractors struggled to get £10 a tonne for pulp wood roadside

[terryd 8,467]

 

Just curious about you folks that still work in the forestry tree felling etc. When I used to do it about 17,18 years ago you didn't need any paper work just turn up grab a saw or jump in any bit of machinery and drive off down the nearest death defying slope no problems.

But nowadays do you need to be paper worked upto the hilt just to get out the car ? or can you still fell trees with out

i worked in the forestry for years as a tree feller in the 1980s hard work and not lot of money but really enjoyed it ,like you say no paper work just grabbed a saw and tuned up,.worked with one lad who really worked fast but looked like a patch work quilt he was covered in that many scars ,its a dangerous job especially if you were felling on a slope , used to do a lot of work doing fire breaks ,I used to work for a sub contractor for the forestry commission basically all the out of the way places that were dangerous that that they didn't want to do themselves ,used to get bit to death in summer by midges sweating like a twat in your ballistics or freezing in the winter as soon as you stopped because of he sweat , we used to hide when the forestry guy came round half of us did,t have any safety gear at all

 

 

aye late nineties I started. I remember some of the first sites I saw I was in awe lol. I walked down the track and I could hear a tractor in the trees next thing it came flying down the slope off the edge of the track landed spun sideways and went roaring off with whooping tush of trees on. I was thinking bloody hell his nuts. Few weeks later after felling I was sitting on the bonnet with the air filter between me legs having a lift down You soon got the hang of things and took it all in your stride

Like you say stopping in the winter then freezing your ass off then trying to get going again. Great times though and I was pondering how hard it would be to get back into it with out paper work. Sounds like a nightmare now

[terryd 8,467]

I used to work for the forestry commission firstly as a tractor driver in a nursery and got sent on courses but if you passed it was added to your green card i did a three months at Inverness collage to get my foremans qualification and had chain saw , mobile peeler etc etc even for driving the transit you had to sit a course and another for pulling a trailer , but when the nursery shut down the qualifications counted for sod all on the outside but by then i had move to being a forest ranger and you didnt need a licence then as the boss had a licence for all the guns .

I remember one of the boys took a bad hit in his pick up from somebody rallying threw the woods and the police had a special section at the rear of there book that just applied to the forestry commission im talking about 30 years ago and even then the contractors struggled to get £10 a tonne for pulp wood roadside

 

was your peeler one of these ?

 

 

used to use one on wheels attached to a pto driven saw bench spent few years shoving stuff in that

Edited February 9, 2017 by terryd

[Neal 1,869]

I did some "Heathland Management"work in the mid to late 90s and we were promised some training leading to a certificate for using a chainsaw. When we started we were then told by the bloke who was running it that there was no way he was going to train us all up in case we put him out of a job after...cheeky sod!

[The one 8,482]

I'm no to sure but like everything else it's in forestry commission green lol

 

My old man said to me get a job in government and you will have a job for life they shut the nursery a day short of twenty years service for me then I got a civil servants transfer to the dockyard and it shut ten years later LOL

 

Every time I moved it was for a better higher paid job but I enjoyed my time in the forrestry the best

[grompz 703]

forestry work was one of the fist jobs for me as a school leaver,started out in the nurseries thinning young saplings outand looking after the glens,moved on to dragging timber out with the horses really enjoyed that but hard and heavy work for a youngster,ended up in a saw mill on circular saw,really boring job,so i jacked after 7yrs,all these jobs had no formal training and health and safety was unheard off,but it was a good healthy life style.