BREAKING OUT

50 yEARS OF FORESTRY RO ADING

Left: The Taylor family. From left: Bob, Marlene, Charlie and Matt (Arthur not present).

Above: Bob Taylor on his Fiat Allis AD14 dozer, 1971.

WHEN THE LEASE ON THEIR

Upper Moutere hop farm came to an end, Marlene Taylor said, “Good, now we can buy a house”. Her husband Bob had other ideas: “No, we can buy a bulldozer”. That first bulldozer was a brand new, bright yellow Fiat Allis AD14 and was a big investment for the Taylors at the time. It was 1971 and Taylors Contracting was born.

Fifty years on, what started out with one bulldozer operated by Bob, preparing land for planting trees for the New Zealand Forest Service (NZFS) and building forestry roads, has expanded to a company with over 170 staff and 140 machines, supplying services to the forestry and civil sectors across the South Island.

Together with their three sons, Charlie, Matt and Arthur, the Taylors turned the one-man forestry roading operation into one of the bestknown contracting companies in the Nelson Marlborough region.

Bob was an innovator, always looking to improve things. He was the first contractor locally to utilise excavators in the forest and the first to modify and fabricate stronger buckets and attachments needed for the harsh conditions. He fitted rippers to the back of the excavator bucket, to turn them around so the digger driver could rip both ways, which had never been done before.

Bob was also one of the first to use dump trucks in the forest for earthworks and twostaging logs. He took the bin off a dump truck and put logging bolsters on it, then he put a turntable bolster on and a long-poled trailer behind it. That rig was used over in the Marahau for some of the first full-stem logging

Story: Hayley Leibowitz

Bob’s log splitting knife attachment innovation.

done around the Nelson region.

Bob also built the first ‘quick hitch’, an attachment on the end of the dipper arm of the excavator. Instead of having to manually pull out the two big pins which held the bucket on, the quick hitch incorporated a hydraulic ram which grabbed the pins.

Other examples of his innovation were an oversized log splitter, used to split extra-large sized logs, and the purchase of an impact or square roller for deep compaction.

This type of innovation was the foundation for the continuous improvement and investment philosophy the company still practices today, says CEO, Charlie: “Bob had some great sayings to point us in the right direction and keep us going. He was very practical and pragmatic. He would say things like: ‘two does not go into one’, ‘remember the Golden Rule – he who has got the gold makes the rules’, ‘chunk problems down and pick off one problem at a time’, ‘prepare and plan but get started’, ‘the job will evolve, don’t complicate or overthink it’, ‘have confidence in your skills’, ‘take ownership and pride in your work’, ‘if the customer does not want you back, you will sack yourself’, ‘we can do this’… And he was right.”

Bob built a skilled and loyal team around him and supported others in the industry. When he died suddenly at the age of 57, Charlie and Matt stepped up and took over, and with Marlene’s guiding hand and their brother Arthur’s support, they built the company into what it is today.

Bob taught Charlie and Matt their trade and they have led the business for the last 25 years. The company has grown into a multi-disciplined forestry and civil engineering construction company which has taken on many diverse and challenging projects over the years.

Taylors Contracting now specialises in forestry infrastructure construction and maintenance, earthmoving, civil engineering construction, and quarry services throughout the South Island.

Today, Taylors’ forestry work takes the company right across the Top of the South Island, from Murchison to the Wairau Valley and the Sounds, but most of their work is within a radius of 150km of Nelson.

Approximately two million tonnes of timber is harvested annually from the Nelson area forests alone and Taylors provides the majority of engineering services in this area to ensure security of supply to these timber assets.

To this end, Taylors owns and operates a modern and diverse fleet of earthmoving equipment. The company’s 52 excavators are all Hitachi, ranging in size from 1.7 tonne to 90 tonne. The bulldozer fleet consists of a Cat D9, three D8s, a D7, a D6, a Komatsu 275, four D155s, one D85 a D31 (that Bob swapped for an old excavator) two John Deere 850s, three John Deere 700s, one Caterpillar and four John Deere 772 six-wheel drive multi-blade graders.

Taylors also runs six truck and trailer units, supported by another 10 regular subcontractors. Other equipment includes loaders, rollers, watercarts, scrapers, dumpers, roadside mowers, hydroseeding and hay mulching and bark and mulch spreading tractor units. The company has several mobile crushers, two drill rigs, its own quarries and produces gravel externally.

On a daily basis the forestry operation generally utilises 14 excavators, four bulldozers, two graders, eight gravel trucks, plus loaders, rollers and field support staff and management.

Not just machines and dirt

“Building a road involves considerably more than just machines and shifting dirt. There is a huge amount of thought and pre-planning required to make it happen,” says Charlie.

“There is now an increasing tendency for forestry clients to bring their contractors in at the planning stage and a growing recognition that operational experience improves safety, reduces risk, gives better environmental outcomes, adds value, saves money and provides better outcomes for all parties involved.”

A strong team is, of course, vital to this process. Bob and Charlie employed Mike Fahey

Left: Forestry Division Manager, Mike Fahey, 2006. Centre: Bob Taylor on a 16B dozer. Bottom: The Taylors Contracting team: Dan Lane, Nathan Price, Mike Fahey, Paul Davies, Marc Nightingale, Matt Neilson, Allan Frew, Ben Catley, Wayne Alekna, Danny Park, Mark Newth, Corinna Downing, Evan Pickering, Ben Bonis, Charlie Thomson, John Brunsden, Dean Robinson, Paul Blanchet, Noel Friend, Peter Ross, Vaughan Toa, Willy Ching and Willy Rashleigh. Absent: Jeff Boyes, Joe Clarke, Kevin Carter, Phil Johnson and Richie Marshall. (Photo: Steve Hussey)

Opposite top: D8 skid construction in the Rai Valley. Opposite centre: The UH061 forestry excavator. Opposite bottom: The company’s UH071 excavator at work.

in 1998 to take on the role of Forestry Division Manager. The team back then consisted of around half a dozen operators. Mike, together with Danny Park (who has also been working with Taylors since 1998), Charlie Thomson and Corrina Downing, now lead a team of around 35 staff and sub-contractors.

“I had a good rapport with Bob and the Taylor boys,” Mike says. “I have a lot of respect for them. Bob was a real genuine bloke and a master roadbuilder. If you had a problem and things were tricky, you could go to Bob, and he would come out and share his knowledge. As a young manager it was good to have that support around you.

“Charlie and Matt are excellent to work for. They have inherited Bob and Marlene’s great work ethic; they lead from the front and never ask anyone to do something they would not do themselves. They are both very capable men, have tremendous vision and have a great capacity to take on new challenges, handle pressure and get the job done.

“They have gone above and beyond for their staff when they have been in need over the years. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an example of this generosity where all staff were paid, and they have kept us all going at considerable cost to the company.”

The majority of the forestry team are longserving, highly skilled operators. This includes people like Ben Bonis, Willie Rashleigh, Dean Robinson, John Brunsden, Wayne Alekna, Dan Lane and Mark Newth to name a few.

This skill level is borne out by the fact that in the last two Top of the South Forestry awards, Taylors operators have taken the Individual Roading Excellence award. Peter Ross, who

is Taylors’ grader driver extraordinaire, won in 2019 with John Brunsden as runner up and Marc Nightingale, a highly experienced excavator operator, won in 2021.

Project perfect

Taylors has literally delivered thousands of kilometres of forestry and rural roads across the Top of the South over the years, even returning and operating in forests for the second and third rotation that Bob and his trusty bulldozer had roaded and land-prepped as the trees have matured, setting up the infrastructure for the next part of the growth cycle.

“There are a couple of Taylor Roads and even a Bob Taylor Road named after the company’s efforts. I do not think there is a Marlene Road, but I think we will have to rectify that,” says Mike. Taylors is currently providing engineering support services for approximately 25 logging crews across the region.

“There are outstanding people in the forestry industry across our region, who quietly and humbly work, hidden away in our rural backdrop every day, working smart to deliver quality sustainable products for our clients and their customers. The Taylors team are some of those people, good people with good skills operating modern, well-maintained equipment,” Mike adds.

One of the first jobs Mike managed for Taylors was the Boundary Road spiral in the Waimea Forest. “It is fair to say that in those days there was some resistance to early contractor involvement in the planning process. Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) had good people but part of the success of any project is bringing together the right people with experience, good ideas and skills. Nobody has a mortgage on good ideas,” he says.

The initial processing site was positioned between the left and right branches of the Wairoa River and there were environmental issues. Bob came up with a plan to upgrade Boundary Road and put a couple of spirals in the middle to get the logging trucks up to the top of the hill. There was resistance from one of the local planners, so Bob and Mike went up and did the field survey for free and got the grade to the top of the hill. There were some tricky areas and they had to price it and convince the management team that they could do it.

“Bob knew we could, and so did I,” Mike says. After they got the road built, one of the CHH managers commented that Bob’s plan had led to significant safety and environmental improvement, saving millions of dollars by not having to two-stage the volume to the bottom of the hill and providing better security of supply.

Above: Cyclone clean-up at Marahau. (Photo: John Brunsden) Below: Pigeon Valley fire clean-up, 2019. (Photo: Dan Lane)

Other key projects over the years have included: • The Cedar Creek Stub Road, comprising six switch back corners stacked on top of each other to access volume between sections of native forest. • The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary Predator

Fence bench – 14km of access track for the construction of the pest-proof fence. • The 2018 Tropical Cyclone Gita storm event response and clean-up at Marahau and

Riwaka. • The 2019 Pigeon Valley wildfire. Taylors fitted into the Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) structure, supporting their team with complimentary earthmoving and machinery management skills to help fight the fire.

“This was a 24-hour seven-day-a-week operation involving hundreds of people.

FENZ was a very professional team to work with,” says Mike. • The construction last year of the new 4.5km long Sturgeon Road for Tasman Pine Forest in the Lee Forest, to avoid access issues across private land. The job was completed on time, within budget and to the required standard.

The good and the bad

“Bob used to say that earthmoving is not an exact science, and you never know what you’re going to find until you dig. That is what keeps Taylors employees coming back each day and what makes it so interesting,” comments Charlie.

The terrain in the Nelson Marlborough region is steep with long slopes and the harvesters and earthmovers of this region are specialists in dealing with the challenges the topography poses. The landscape is always changing, whether through natural processes, disasters or man-made modification and dealing with earth science is what Taylors does. This includes an interest in rocks and dirt, dealing with soil structures that are millions of years old, and respecting the land and the landforms they work with.

“A lot of our guys can look at rock and read the way the grain is running or how hard it is,” says Mike. “Bob was a master at this. He could see the most efficient way to shift dirt, where to start, and how to set a job up efficiently. Bob had really good skills and Charlie and Matt have got these abilities as well. They’re very talented and innovative earthmovers.”

And it helps that they have good relationships with the local councils and communities they work in. Mike says: “We are part of these communities; we live here, earn our living here, we hunt the hills, fish the rivers and sea, tramp and bike in the forests... we are committed

The Terex CBI 6800CT horizontal grinder in action. (Photo: Dan Lane)

to the region and want our activities to be sustainable”.

Environmental standards have improved significantly in the last 50 years and the great thing is they will improve even more in the next 50, he adds. “Soil conservation and water quality protection has always been a high priority for Taylors Forestry clients, Iwi, private landowners, the communities who use and play in our environment and for Taylors as earthmoving contractors. The importance and sensitivity of the landscape and fresh water is recognised by the team, and measures to avoid and mitigate the effects of each job are put in place. We comply with applicable environmental legislation, national standards and best practice.”

These values have come under further scrutiny since the recent introduction of the two sets of National Environmental Standards for Fresh Water and Plantation Forestry (NESPF). Mike comments, “Improving environmental controls is a growth area for our business and fits very well with our values and where the future is going. It is good work and makes a big difference. It’s all about doing a quality job, sustainable land use and mitigating our impacts. With the introduction of the new standards, we are upskilling our people on new methods and techniques to meet the intent and objectives of the legislation. Through knowledge sharing, investment and training, Taylors actively involves employees in environmental initiatives, encouraging them to take ownership and accountability for the impact of their actions and encouraging proactive environmental management.” In 2019, Taylors won the Environmental Excellence Award at the Top of the South Forestry Awards.

A recent acquisition furthers this aim – a big Terex CBI 6800CT horizontal grinder, effectively a giant mulcher which takes material in at one end, grinds it up and spits it out the other. The grinder is used for mulching woody biowaste into useful products such as biofuel for boilers, mulch for landscaping, material for soil stabilisation and bedding or feeding pad material for livestock husbandry.

“The grinder can be easily transported to jobs around the region. Being self-propelled it can be readily moved around sites to where the work is. Several of our clients are trialling options to turn residue wood products and forestry slash into sustainable and renewable energy sources, which has the added benefit of further reducing onsite and potential offsite impacts and this machine is ideal for this process. Land conversion operations can also benefit from the grinder’s ability to deal with trees and shelterbelts, such as in urban subdivisions and rural land use change,” Charlie explains.

Safe and sound towards the future

Working with big iron, safety has always played an important role in the work undertaken by Taylors. There have been no serious long term, lost-time injuries to the Forestry team in over 25 years of operations.

“To foster positive safety outcomes, Taylors leverages everyone’s expertise to identify and help manage hazards. We make sure everyone understands they are empowered and are expected to stop a task if there is a safety risk, which is reflected in the company tagline, ‘Return Home Uninjured Unharmed Everyday’,” says Charlie.

“Outwardly the appearance of safety paraphernalia has changed over the years as times have changed, but the philosophy of building effective safety into the job has been consistent. Taylors is using technologies such as paperless forms, GPS and more recently QR codes to help make things easier these days.”

Feedback from staff on these technologies is interesting, with some reporting that prior to introducing GPS they were habitual speeders on the road. With the introduction of vehicle GPS they have changed their ways and now find this behaviour translated to the way they drive their personal vehicles. Fuel burn, tyre wear and vehicle damage is also reduced, saving costs and repairs, Charlie adds.

Taylors also has a strong focus on wellbeing and ensuring that work has an overall positive influence on everyone’s life. “As part of this we encourage everyone to think of their role as having two aspects, the first is their primary function and the second is improving their job and work environment. Taylors was accredited to ISO 45001 earlier this year and this reflects our progressive approach and commitment to making health and safety part of everyone’s job,” he says.

Mike says he feels privileged to have been part of the Taylors team for the last 23 years: “We have been part of a sustainable supply chain which has created a lot of value for our clients, communities, and the country in general. Through our working careers we have experienced trees being planted, harvested and replanted. There are tremendously talented and committed people in the forestry and engineering industries; they work smart and think laterally. The business has continued to grow and improve, and we have had a lot of fun along the way. Forestry and Taylors Contracting has a very bright future.”

Charlie agrees: “There have been great advancements in Health and Safety and Environmental Standards in the last 50 years and the pace of improvement has picked up, particularly in the last 10 years. Machinery and technology keep improving. The reliability and efficiency of each new generation of machinery is exciting. Improving work methods, improving environmental controls, utilising leftover wood residues and biofuels, and working smarter to reduce our impacts are where the growth opportunities are. We continue to invest in our people, equipment, systems, and work methods to ensure a sustainable future as we look forward to the next 50 years in business. We pride ourselves on long term, sustainable, win-win relationships.”

On the forestry industry, he adds: “Forestry is a great industry to be involved in. In this region it is amazing how we all know each other. At the recent 2021 Top of the South Forestry awards night, company CEOs were talking with contractors and their staff. There are not many industries where people at all levels, from forest management companies to field staff, know each other and converse.

“Forestry is also a sector where you get multi generations of staff working in the same industry. People who love the land and pass their passion on to other members of their family. Taylors Contracting has many staff members with close relatives working alongside them in forestry and across other divisions in the company. Mike is just one example of this, with two nephews now working for Taylors.”

Mike still loves being on a ridge at daybreak watching the sun come up, or going down after a hard day’s work, seeing the changing shapes and colours of the landscape. “I enjoy the challenge of creating something out of nothing and building infrastructure that stands the test of time,” he says, adding that he respects the talent, commitment and hard work of the people in the industry.

“It is a great office and the air in the forest seems better, cleaner, and fresher. It’s a great place to work. Foresters and contractors are optimists. A person who plants a tree or invests in people and plant in the forestry industry looks 30 years into the future and creates something real, creates a living breathing asset, creates sustainable value,” he says. NZL

TAYLORS HAS RELEASED A BOOK IN CELEBRATION OF ITS 50-YEAR ANNIVERSARY.

The book, The Taylors Way, was written by Author Carol Dawber, well known for her other history books on the area, and dedicated to Bob Taylor, and all those who have been part of the company’s journey. The book starts with 19-year-old John Taylor, who emigrated from England to Nelson aboard the Emma Colvin in 1856, and who was the great grandfather of Bob Taylor – the founder of Taylors Contracting.

The book then moves through the years to the current day, sharing stories from family members, past and present employees and fellow contractors. This is a well-researched story, with the smell of diesel and dust in the air.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase from Taylors Contracting Head Office.