Brothers gain Safetree Faller Certification
Brothers Harry (L) and Nick (R) Harrison pictured with father Nigel (centre) recently gained Safetree Faller certification. This adds to the already talented family harvesting business operated by Mum and Dad, Michelle and Nigel Harrison of Wise on Wood in Northland.
The qualification compliments the strong practical skills these keen young men already have and illustrates their willingness to learn and develop.
The Wise on Wood team are renown for providing training and upskilling support to their team and subsequently have gained two additional production fellers. Tree felling and another high-risk forestry task, breaking out, are both covered in the Safetree Professional Forest Worker Certification programme.
Safetree is run by the Forest Industry Safety Council and provides resources and programmes to help people run safe and successful forestry operations. Professional Worker Certification is a great way to get official recognition from the industry that a workers’ skills are still up to date. Certification confirms that tree fellers and breakers out 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 crew mates.
Nigel, himself a NZQA forestry trainer and assessor, played a significant part in both his son’s training and preparation but left the formal assessments to external experts. ‘The boys had to be able to meet the mark of the external assessors so no-one could argue about their abilities or qualifications’.
PF Olsen require our harvesting contractors who have manual tree fellers to hold certification if they want to work by themselves, otherwise another qualified person is required to be in attendance. These safety steps ensure that all practicable steps are taken to keep our people safe.
Wise on Wood are also a Safetree Contractor Certified company. They, along with PF Olsen see certification as the ‘benchmark for compliance’, in other words, what the industry and regulator understand to be the minimum standard.
Congratulations Harry and Nick – our Northland team recognised these significant achievements by presenting the boys with Hunting and Fishing vouchers.