NZ Logger March 2024

March 2024

| 9.50

n o i t a r e op nce

ISSN 2703-6251

e r e f f i d a h t i w

Boom and bust for Robert Stubbs

Q&A with FICA’s Prue Younger

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contents

MARCH 2024

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FOREST TALK Pan Pac back to business; New FICA CEO up to the challenge; Good riddance to Auckland Regional Fuel Tax; Ernslaw One in hot water; Wind turbines for climate change mitigation; Fire season brings forestry into question; UAVs flying high for pest control; Opinion: Optimism for the future of forestry.

SHAW’S WIRE ROPES IRON TEST Dragging logs out of rivers is a big enough salvage operation. Add some submerged forestry machinery

30

and you’ve got yourself a challenge.

The Komatsu D65P bulldozer was up to the job. And then there’s the Black Hawk helicopter wating in the wings!

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TALL TIMBER After 23 years building a logging contracting business in his own name, Robert Stubbs is out. He fought for a more stable business environment but paid a deeply personal price. In this special two-part Tall Timber report, Robert tells it all.

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WOMEN IN FORESTRY Prue Younger has been at the coalface of the industry through a volatile time as CEO of the Forest Industry Contractors Association for the past six years. We sat down with her to ask about the ins and outs.

DEPARTMENTS 2 editorial 42 fica 46 top spot 49 Greenlight New Iron 51 classifieds

March 2024 | NZ LOGGER 1

from the editor March 2024

| 9.50

operatincoen

ISSN 1176-0397

PHOTO: TIM BENSEMAN

with a differe

Q&A with FICA’s Prue Younger

Boom and bust for Robert Stubbs

The Komatsu D65P pushes a storm-damaged Washington 188 swing yarder over the flooded Whitikau Stream while a Komatsu PC400 tows from the front.

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2 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

Talking people THE FOCUS IS ALWAYS ON OUR FORESTS, OUR POLITICS, OUR MACHINES, but none of those would matter without the people who inhabit them. When we greet each other at smoko and get on with our day, we don’t always know what’s going on behind the scenes – the battles people are fighting, the obstacles they have had to overcome.

This month we take a deep dive into one man’s forestry journey. Robert Stubbs, or Stubbsy as he is affectionately known, has seen it all in his 23 years at the helm of Stubbs Contractors. He shares his deeply personal story of the physical, emotional and practical battles he had to overcome to build his business and how it all came to an abrupt halt – reminding us that we are all just a step away from success or failure. Not one to feel sorry for himself though, Robert is already back on the job, now running fleet operations for a contractor in Gisborne. We look forward to seeing what he does next. You can’t keep a good man down!

With the focus on people this month, we also sat down with outgoing Forest Industry Contractors Association CEO, Prue Younger. She has made her mark on the industry in her six years in the role and has strong opinions. While we are all familiar with her smiling face and outgoing personality, make no mistake, there is a powerhouse of a woman driving her achievements.

Our Iron Test too tells of the ingenuity of the human spirit. The effects of Cyclone Gabrielle are still being felt but we are slowly getting the better of her. It’s not just about salvaging logs these days. A storm-damaged Washington 188 swing yarder and a landslide-damaged 10-wheel forwarder offered an irresistible challenge for Forestry Solutions Group’s Komatsu D65P bulldozer at Whitikau Forest in East Cape.

And if a bulldozer can’t do the job? We take a look at how a heli-logging salvage operation works too.

Plenty to get your teeth into this month.

Until next time, stay safe.

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forest talk

Pan Pac back to business IT’S A WELCOME SIGHT FOR HAWKE’S BAY RESIDENTS as steam billows from the boilers, pulp mill and kilns at Pan Pac Forest Products’ Whirinaki mill site once again.

On 14 February 2023, the site was hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, with silt flooding into buildings, causing significant damage to the plant and putting the whole site out of action. The silt came over the top of the stop banks behind the site, which were designed for a one-in-500-year flood occurrence. In some areas onsite the silt was two metres high.

Pan Pac suffered $300 million in damage to its business and forests from the cyclone, and the company and its staff have been working tirelessly to repair and rebuild ever since, starting with removing silt and identifying machinery that could be restored.

“Seeing the steam rising again from the Boiler 1 stack is a welcome sign that full operation is on the horizon,” says Tony Clifford, Managing Director, Pan Pac Forest Products, with lumber operations beginning and the pulp mill up and running this month .

The boiler steam comes from bark and sawdust by-products of the pulp and lumber operations and woody offcuts that have been salvaged from forest operations and converted into biofuel. This energy provides all of the energy required for the pulp and lumber drying and around 12% of the mill’s electricity needs.

“Our forests were also impacted at the time, with trees being lost to slips and windthrow. We can’t wait to get back to business. It’s been a long road back to recovery, but we are grateful to all our staff, contractors, customers, suppliers and our shareholder for sticking with us throughout this process,” says Mr Clifford. NZL

4 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

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The Pan Pac Forest Products site a week after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

forest talk

New FICA CEO up to the challenge ROWAN STRUTHERS IS THE NEW CEO OF the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA). An experienced professional who has worked across the forestry sector in various roles, including senior leadership and forest management, Rowan takes over from departing CEO Prue Younger (see page 38).

Having graduated from Canterbury University Forestry School, Mr Struthers has over 30 years of experience working in forestry. He has worked in most sectors of the industry including silviculture, woodflow/supply chain management, harvesting, log trading, human resource management, sales and marketing of processed products, building supplies management, forest procurement and general management.

He has held senior leadership roles in a diverse number of companies including Fletcher Challenge Forests, Umbraco (a privately owned building supply company managing multiple sites),

Hancock/Manulife and most recently Chief Operations Officer at China Forestry Group. He has also been a member of the NZ Forest Owners Association executive.

FICA Chair, Nick Tombleson, says the FICA Board is delighted to have Mr Struthers on board to take the organisation forward into its next stage.

“Mr Struthers has a huge amount of knowledge across so many parts of our industry. That will be of huge benefit to our forestry contractor members and we’re looking forward to drawing on his experience as we take FICA into the next period,” he says.

Mr Struthers says that he is ready to take on the new challenge and will be focused on building a professional, efficient and sustainable contractor workforce.

“Over the 30 years I have spent in the industry, a key part of my success has been the collaborative relationships I have been able to develop with contractors,” he says.

New FICA CEO, Rowan Struthers.

“A professional, efficient and sustainable contractor workforce is key to ensuring the long-term future of the New Zealand Forest Industry. This role is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to further the good work that has already been done by many. I look forward to the challenge.” NZL

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forest talk

ents, for the diameter. This heavy

Good riddance to Auckland Regional Fuel Tax

at set it apart from “I CAN CONFIRM THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS AGREED TO remove the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax in line with our coalition commitments, and legislation will be introduced to parliament to repeal the tax as part of our 100 Day Plan,” says Transport Minister Simeon Brown. The Tax will end on 30 June 2024.

“Since 1 July 2018, Aucklanders have faced an additional 11.5 cents per litre tax on fuel, over and above what the rest of the country pays, increasing the cost of living at a time when they can least afford it.

Ending this tax is one way to reduce the price of fuel and ease some of the financial pressure facing households in our largest city.

“Fuel tax is becoming an increasingly regressive form of taxation and costs people on lower incomes with less fuel-efficient vehicles more than those who have newer more fuel-efficient vehicles. We intend to fully remove the legislative framework for regional fuel taxes.”

As of September 2023, around $780 million in Regional Fuel Tax (RFT) revenue had been raised, with approximately $341 million

remaining unspent (the equivalent of more than two years’ worth of revenue).

“The RFT was supposed to help fund important projects like Mill Road and Penlink. While Mill Road was cancelled, and Penlink received full Crown funding, Auckland Transport has used RFT revenue to fund many non-roading projects including more cycle lanes, redlight cameras, speed humps, and lowering speed limits across the city,” Mr Brown says.

“I have discussed the unspent funds with Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and signalled our intention that they are to be spent on projects which are of mutual priority to the Government and Auckland Council. These projects include the Eastern Busway, City Rail Link electric trains and stabling, road corridor improvements, and some growth-related transport infrastructure.

“Legislation removing the RFT will require Auckland Transport to only be able to use the remaining RFT revenue and unspent funds towards delivering these projects.” NZL

Ernslaw One in hot water ERNSLAW ONE HAS HAD ITS FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL Certification suspended over slash damage from its forests in and around Tolaga Bay in 2018.

Most international markets require timber imports to carry the certification, and Ernslaw One says it is appealing the suspension.

The Queen’s Birthday storm caused masses of woody debris to flow down rivers and on to the beach, damaging homes, farms, roads, bridges and beaches.

A court earlier fined Ernslaw One for breaching its resource consents in the storm lead-up.

With multiple forestry companies working in Tairāwhiti, there’s no way of knowing where all the wood came from, however the Malaysian-owned company is a major grower.

Chair of the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use, Hekia Parata, says it was an environmental disaster unfolding in plain sight and an audit is being conducted into many forests around the country. NZL

ents, for the 6 NZ LOGGER | March 2023 diameter. This heavy at set it apart from

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forest talk

Wind turbines for climate change mitigation

Winds of change at Modvian showing wood tower construction, close to tower scaffolding and lifting the module.

Story: Jim Childerstone, Forestry Services

NATIONWIDE THE RACE IS ON FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF wind turbines, adding to existing projects. A change in wind tower construction could aid New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission’s 2030 target for zero carbon emissions.

Contact Energy has sought the go-ahead for a 55-tower wind farm near Wyndham in Southland, saying the potential 100+ meter high turbines will produce 300MW of electricity to power 150,000 homes. The project is still to be finalised and is waiting on consent.

The question arises, are these towers to be built using traditional steel constructs?

Existing wind towers are built with each tower using 80% steel, with components manufactured overseas and shipped to New Zealand ports.

If built with engineered wood (as in Europe) each tower captures 2000 tonnes of carbon, equalling 110,000t total at Wyndham.

Swedish firm Modvion is currently building extra high wood towers to 150 meters, said to be far more cost-effective than steel.

Even the blades are being built with wood.

According to Modvion company reports, the wood-based construct uses laminated veneer lumber (LVL).

These products, including cross laminated timber (CLT) are already being produced by New Zealand companies.

This Swedish technology is being adopted by up to 88 countries through international firm, Vestas. But apparently not here in New Zealand.

Scandinavian firm, Semco, assisted wood tech company Modvion in the development of wood based structures made up of engineered wood, thus enabling taller structures which proved less costly and easier to handle than steel.

8 NZ LOGGER | March 2023

This led to better efficiency in megawattage (MW) output per turbine due to the height factor.

Among other advantages is the weigh - wood being 30% lighter per cubic meter than steel, cutting transport costs compared with steel components.

Lighter weight, says Modvion, means less volumes of steel and concrete needed for the base.

The first 150-metre tower was built for Swedish firm Varberg Energy with V90-2 MW Vestas turbines.

Another savings with wood was the elimination of 50,000 steel bolts, which required constant regular inspections.

Another factor is the surface coating which enables protection throughout the tower’s commercial life.

And finally, at the end of a turbine’s life the towers can be dismantled, with LVL wood being used for the building industry read carbon retention.

The steel carbon footprint escalates from mining to separation via coal-fired blast furnaces and manufacture, and transport on to sites, making wood a much greener option.

Firms, such as Nelson Pine Industries and Levin based Glulam’s CLT Techlam division, provide a variety of engineered timber, mainly for construction purposes.

Multilevel buildings over 12 stories can be built using engineered beams to replace steel and concrete. A considerable saving in Co2 emissions.

Nelson Pine Industries writes that this country has the wherewithal to manufacture wood-based towers using our own forestry resources.

And this should be recognised and followed-up by related

CH 0

M D 0

0

industries, government and its agencies.

It appears neither company had been approached for information for wind tower alternatives.

The question to ask is, would these firms be capable of manufacturing these towers locally without extra funding to set up suitable plant?

Each tower would take considerable tonnage of wood, replacing some 15+ tonnes of steel.

It would be a big ask, but local companies do have the expertise.

At three+ metre base the timber would have to be specially rounded to fit space, thus each 7 mt section is made up of four separate pieces.

Illustrations from the Swedish firm indicate the towers follow much the same patterns as tubular steel towers.

Scion Research, when contacted, was unable to name any local entities involved with new wind turbine engineering.

Specific questions to Contact Energy on any investigative research into wind tower alternative constructs through several channels drew a blank.

A statement attributed to the company’s head of wind and solar, Mathew Cleland, reads: “When the time comes to purchase the components for the wind farm (Slopehill near Wyndham), including turbines;

we will follow our procurement policies which include robust processes to select the best suited supplier. We consider many factors including cost, equipment life, the environment and the community.”

Which seems to beg the question; how much research has already been done in costing the project to this stage? Carbon emissions do not appear as a factor at the construction phase.

MPI’s Te Uru Rakau Forest Service referred NZ Logger enquiries to other stakeholders. Apparently there had been no approach from government ministries or other agencies.

Yet this issue has been highlighted in the public arena through the mainstream media, such as TVNZ1 News, RNZ and Stuff publications.

(Approached so far through emails and phone for media responses are both Genesis and Contact Energy, Techlam and NPI as well as government agency MPI. Other power firms with existing and proposed windfarms include Meridian and Mercury Energy.)

Genesis replied that it was mainly concentrating on building a 500 MW solar generation project. It is also trialling biomass for electricity generation at its Huntly Power Station. But it would look at options for wood-based constructs in future wind turbine projects.

Yet we sit on significant potential forestry products which would add further to our local based industries.

So far not a lot is happening in the field of wind energy efficiency affecting climate change.

It’s time local and regional authorities took a hard look at the latest alternatives to use our own resources. NZL

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forest talk

The Port Hills fire raging.

Fire season brings forestry into question THE RECENT DEVASTATING PORT HILLS FIRE HAS SPARKED questions about the area’s future, particularly its land use make-up. While not quite as severe as the wildfires of seven years ago, residents impacted by the latest fire are questioning the replanting of pine and whether forestry is an appropriate use of the land.

Christchurch City Councillor for the Heathcote ward, Sara Templeton, says she expects more fires in the future.

“There’s no doubt with climate change, and the hotter, drier and windier summers, and an urban area where there’s a lot of human activity, that it’s likely we’ll have more fires.”

Meanwhile, the Coastal, Waimea and Nelson North zones in Nelson Tasman moved to a prohibited fire season last month, until further notice.

Increased fire risk in the region also has Tasman Pine Forests closing its forests off to recreational activities.

Closed off access will affect the Brook Conservation Reserve (Fringed Hill), which has downhill trails leading into the Brook Valley and all of Sharlands forest, accessed via the Maitai, and its trails.

After discussions between the council and Tasman Pine Forestry, the public can still access the Firball Skid via Middle Rd. The move comes after forestry firm One Forty One New Zealand also made the decision to restrict access to its forests last month.

The Tasman District Council posted an update from the company which said the closures came as fire danger climbed in the region and NIWA forecasts suggested high fire danger weather conditions were set to continue.

One Forty One said they understood the restrictions would cause frustrations for the public but it only takes one spark to start a fire, like the recent blaze in Lee Valley.

A prohibited fire season means no outdoor fires are allowed and all fire permits are suspended.

District Manager Grant Haywood says persistent hot and dry weather, above average winds and below average rainfall have 10 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

increased the fire danger.

“We’ve had a heavy build-up of grass across these areas following the wet winter and spring which has now dried out and is posing a significant fire risk,” he says.

“These are the conditions where wildfires start easily and can quickly get very difficult to control.”

“For example the recent Lee Valley fire on 7 February started from sparks igniting roadside grass and then spreading into forestry.

“While a prohibited fire season should reduce the likelihood of unwanted fires, we have a history of large, fast-moving fires in the area at this time of year and we’re asking people to make sure they are prepared,” he says.

“This is particularly important for people living in rural areas and on the edges of towns where the potential for fires to start and spread quickly to adjacent properties is very high.”

Mr Haywood asks that people be cautious and not carry out activities that pose a fire risk, such as mowing, welding and driving through long grass.

“But if you must mow your lawn or undertake any farm activity that’s likely to generate sparks, do it first thing in the morning when it is still cool,” he says.

People can also take simple steps to make their properties easier to defend against fire.

This includes: • Clearing flammable material from 10m around homes and buildings.

• Moving firewood stacked against houses.

• Clearing gutters of dried leaves etc that will easily catch fire.

• Clearing flammable material from under decks.

• Trimming trees and bushes and removing the trimmings.

• Keeping grass short (using a trimmer with a nylon line is safer in these conditions than a mower or trimmer with a metal blade that could create a spark). NZL

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forest talk

UAVs flying high for pest control Staff preparing the first trial which used collectors, placed through the canopy and on the ground, to capture how deeply the dye penetrated the canopy and drifted.

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVS) COULD BE A NEW TOOL in the biosecurity toolbox making pest control more targeted, safer and less invasive, says Scion’s Plant Protection Physics and Chemistry team’s Dr Justin Nairn.

UAVs can fly closer to the target than a helicopter − about 2m versus 10m-plus − have a smaller footprint and fly slower, meaning they can be more precise.

The research comes two years since the discovery of the fall armyworm in New Zealand in February 2022. The moth threatens crops in its larvae (caterpillar) stage.

Dr Nairn’s initial studies in March 2021 into the general efficiency of spraying using UAVs used fluorescent dye to investigate how UAVs performed in aerial spray operations in urban environments.

Then in February last year, one year after fall armyworm’s arrival, scientists trialled using a key bio-insecticide for combating Lepidoptera moths. The findings of this trial are being finalised but Dr Nairn says using UAVs for pest control is growing quickly as operational limitations like cost, weight and flight time are reducing as technology advances.

The invasive pest problem has been highlighted many times over the years. From a seven-year, $65 million response to the painted apple moth in Auckland in 1999, through to the ongoing battle against fall armyworm and managing myrtle rust.

“Fast and effective pest control is vital to prevent pest and pathogen establishment. However there needs to be a balance between engaging communities ahead of incursion responses, and the potential need for fast action,” says Scion’s Dr Andrea Grant.

“If community concerns are not addressed and they have no opportunity to respond to planned operations, they may lose 12 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

confidence and support for urban biosecurity operations in future.”

In aligned research, Dr Grant ran focus groups looking at social and cultural considerations of UAV spraying. They included social researchers, UAV researchers, Māori involved in forest protection and management, and forestry managers. Participants identified social issues like human health, safety and ethics, professionalisation of UAV use, Te Tiriti partnerships, engagement and capability.

Māori environmental not-for-profit Te Tira Whakamātaki was included in focus groups. Chief scientist, Dr Simon Lambert, says much of the Māori economy is in the primary sector - so highly reliant on the environment.

“Māori are increasingly aware of the vulnerability of their assets and cultural capital to biosecurity events and are not opposed to technological innovation but insist on early and ongoing engagement,” he says.

Better Border Biosecurity (B3) is a multi-partner joint venture researching ways to reduce entry and establishment of new plant pests and diseases in New Zealand.

B3 Director, Dr Desi Ramoo, says Dr Nairn’s research is an example of adapting existing technology into an applied biosecurity tool.

“We must be prepared with a number of solutions developed from Western science and mātauranga Māori to ensure we are ahead of the game and move from a reactive to proactive biosecurity system.”

Brendan Gould, Forest Owners Association biosecurity manager, says successful intervention relies on the ability to respond, but community impacts and implications need to be considered as part of the process of operational design.

“There is no one tool that will work in every situation.” NZL

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Opinion

Optimism for the future of forestry WHILE THE FORESTRY INDUSTRY – LIKE many others – is in a challenging space at the moment, the industry will be a major beneficiary once demand lifts from China.

That’s the assessment of Shaun Truelock, recently appointed General Manager at OneFortyOne, a major timber player in the Top of the South.

“It’s a challenging space at the moment.

It’s not just us who’s affected. It’s contractors, drivers, workers – we all have to work together to get through,” says Mr Truelock.

He adds that the upcoming months look tough for the forestry sector, however he’s quick to point out that all in the sector need to remember that New Zealand is China’s main supplier of timber which means it’s “when, not if, demand lifts, we will all be back with front row seats”.

Forestry is nothing new to Mr Truelock.

He was born and raised on a South African plantation. And like his father and grandfather, Shaun has continued the family tradition by following a career in the forestry space. “My oldest boy, who is 19, is an aspiring fourth-generation forester up in Gisborne,” he says.

We could list his past roles including establishing a harvesting company and working as a forestry optimisation consultant.

14 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

Or we could explain how he took on the task of saving 12,000 hectares of subtropical trees from being burnt by teaching local guys to “fell it”, then started up a sawmill and furniture factory to turn the trees into locally used school desks and office desks in the Zambia region with no electricity. (That was before moving to New Zealand for an extensive role running and developing forestry operations.)

However, it would be easier to just say he has hands-on experience in every element of a forestry business across New Zealand, Zambia and South Africa.

Mr Truelock says, “I’m really looking forward to getting into the forest more and working with others to improve our field operations.”

He’s realistic that the sector has “a lot of noise” around it regarding forestry’s potential impact on communities.

“Managing expectations of the public is something we are continuing to work on. Agriculture, horticulture and forestry would all achieve a lot more if we worked together, so I’m enthusiastic about making connections within communities and working together,” he explains.

Agriculture is a sector he knows well, as alongside his forestry career he has grown and harvested his own arable crops.

Mr Truelock says he feels with his past experience, innovative approach, and genuine passion for building long-lasting relationships there are many opportunities for the Top of the South forestry sector that he wants to explore.

He concludes by saying, “While the road ahead looks challenging, there are a lot of companies coming through with innovative ways to get through this tough period, which is encouraging, and worth exploring.”

First published in Top South Farming Paper, December 2023. NZL

Shaun Truelock, New Zealand Forests General Manager, OneFortyOne.

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Iron Test

The Komatsu D65P hauling one of the logs that had slid into the river.

DRAGGING LOGS OUT OF RIVERS IS A BIG ENOUGH SALVAGE operation as it is but when the Iron Test team arrived at Whitikau Forest in East Cape there was also a storm-damaged Washington 188 swing yarder and a landslide-damaged 10-wheel forwarder for Forestry Solutions Group (FSG) to rescue from the ravages of various storms over the last year with their Komatsu D65P bulldozer.

To give you an idea of where we are at in Whitikau, if you draw a line between Opotiki and Gisborne we are about the middle of that line – so in the Cape but not on it. The area is rugged and has a long history of logging and logging incidents due to the terrain and the weather. A

bit more about that later.

FSG first started its association with this 300-hectare forest a couple of years ago when they bought a damaged Bellis 70 which had to be pushed and pulled out of this steep, high rainfall area for a rebuild in Gisborne.

Regular D65P operator, Neville, was running that hauler recovery operation and was a bit alarmed to learn that less than a year later the rebuilt machine had been leased to a crew who wanted it back in here.

This forest is a classic example of what to avoid when looking for

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Be Story & photos: Tim

operation

with a difference

logging work. At least six crews have worked in here and the first crew was told they would be logging the entire forest. If that doesn’t get alarm bells ringing it should. It’s a clear sign that it costs more money than you think to log it. Another clue is that almost all the internal roads and the majority of the forest’s trees are facing south so these slopes will rarely dry out, and will be prone to more slippage and disruptions to income generating activities.

Talking to a few old hands, the consensus is nobody should have been in here logging at under $60 a tonne and probably a lot more.

Although the block has plenty of good, hard rock, most of the

trees were never pruned or thinned, but at 35-plus years old there were some very good stems in here. Long A40 for miles. And, of course, at that age most of the branches snap off when the stem hits the ground but that still didn’t mean profits for loggers. No doubt the one-and-a-half-hour drive in from Opotiki or two hours from Gisborne on what the World Rally drivers called an

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Above left: The Komatsu D65P dozer heads up the internal forest road to start clearing slash from the Whitikau Stream.

Above right: Iron Tester, Tony Hill, smoothes out one of the internal forest roads (top) and prepares to park up the dozer after the test (bottom). “absolute sh#t road” (the Motu Road) would have soaked up a lot of expenses as well with wear and tear, accidents, flooded trucks, broken leaf springs, vehicles catching fire, fuel tankers and log trailers going over the bank and the like.

Storm-ravaged machinery After the Washington swing yarder’s anchor stumps slipped away in a storm and dragged it partially over the bank, FSG was sent in to start cleaning up and stabilising the forest.

Decent water controls have now gone in with regular, deep elephant pits installed. Far better water controls than at any time when the forest was being harvested.

As for the forwarder, which was actually a shuttle truck, the operator who was in it at the time said he was turning around on the ridge top loaded one wet day and when he stopped the backing up process the land beneath him gave way and started to slide. He put on the hand brake and jumped clear without injury.

After Iron tester Tony Hill took the D65P for a spin and pushed up some dirt he discovered the winch wasn’t working quite right (regular operator noted it had been slowing down a bit) so we caught up with Neville again a few days later as he had been off on an emergency repair fixing a final drive at one of Forestry Solutions Group’s other crews. It must be handy having a mechanic with a deep base of experience in the crew and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

How did you get into the mechanical field? “That was easy,” says Neville. “Motorbikes. And then when it was time to buy my first car I bought a house truck instead, put my dirt bike on the back so that freed me up to move around and I learnt how to fix that too.”

Today he is trying to figure out what the issue is with the Carco 7 winch on the D65P. “It’s got oil in it; it’s got pressure although

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I haven’t been able to test it to see if it’s got enough pressure. The way it broke down was gradual,” says Neville. “ It was working okay on arrival and we used it to move the Washington and to get the forwarder back up from over the side. I’m just checking to see if it is a hose inside that has slowly worked loose or perished due to the heat from winching the hauler.

“If we can’t get it going ourselves we’ll just rig up a long strop and get on with the job that way. We are almost finished in here anyway so it’s not going to impact the job much if we just use a strop.”

Neville is a dab hand with a Milwaukie rattle gun and has inspection plates off and back on, in next to no time. The decision is made to box on using a strop which Neville promptly makes from a bit of wire rope and the assistance of his workmate, Shorty. Shorty has been breaking out in rivers before, having spent three months in deep water at Port Waikato so he puts on a pair of waders and gets busy. The slash here isn’t just pine, some of it is native from DOC managed land further upstream.

Neville’s first interest in logs started helping his dad chainsawing firewood in the Bay of Plenty. His wanderings in his house truck led him to the West Coast and he worked in a pub a few loggers frequented and before long was offered a job as radio man.

Old school logging gear “That was a big Vietnam era backpack radio with a huge arse aerial.

From there I worked my way through various roles and ended up running the hauler dragging native logs out of the bush for four years. That hauler had a curved corrugated iron roof. No guarding whatsoever. We used the big old saws and got one of the first Stihl 084’s as a demo and that was a real game changer. As you know the West Coast is the Wet Coast, it’s almost always raining, three months

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Above from left to right: Iron Tester, Tony Hill, pushes up some dirt with 110-year-old pine trees in the background; Tony backs up the D65P; The 188’s mast after it was removed.

Below: Iron Tester, Tony Hill, pushing up some dirt to rehab the site. straight while I was there… so, if you don’t work in the rain you don’t get paid. On the way home if we passed a pub that had its chimney smoking we would stop to dry out and if there was no smoke we kept rolling.

“From there I did some logging in the Marlborough Sounds, and then did some earthworks for walking tracks in the Sounds and learnt to use explosives to blast tracks into bluffs. And then did a stint in Papua New Guinea working with helicopters and logging barges. A storm struck one day and almost sunk the barge, so I had to chain it to the wheel loader and drag that to safety. I got quite a few job offers after that.

“I worked a few different jobs and ended up in Gisborne and got a job working for Steven Dewes for a few years.

“I bought a new Kobelco SK300 about two years ago and fitted it out as a bare basics log loader. No cutover work, just loading out and skid work and that’s going good in the Wharerata area south of Gisborne in Forestry Solutions Group’s crew there. It’s got a big grapple, an Ensign 2430 so a 2.4-metre opening. I employ a contract loader operator to run it and he has it down to about nine minutes to load a truck. Around two-and-a-half grabs for the truck and four grabs for the trailer and done. It’s fast at putting away cut

piles too. Especially handy if you need to go a long way to store grades as you are carrying nearly twice the volume of smaller grapples and with a 30-tonne base you have the power to do it quick.”

Speaking of big gear, FSG has a couple of large Madill 009 ninetyfoot tower yarders so they are able to get into some challenging terrain as well as the environmental remediation side of their business.

There were a lot of stems left on the ground in Whitikau after an unexpected shutdown and these were below the Washington yarder which then fell over in the storm. An area was identified where these stems needed to be relocated to avoid them getting mobilised into driftwood.

Neville says that if it was in the budget the optimal way to remove these stems would be by helicopter. This was pretty neat to hear as we’ve been wanting to Iron Test a logging chopper for quite a while but it turns out it’s a bit too much red tape for that to happen at the moment. Plus, I’d started out helping cut Rimu for an old Iroquois back in the day in this same valley so it would be pretty cool to hear how things have advanced since then.

Black Hawk logging helicopter The nearest helicopter company suitable for the job is Kahu NZ with its Black Hawk based in Whakatane.

Although timing didn’t coincide with our visit, we caught up with Mark Law from Kahu about the Black Hawk and removing those logs not long after.

So, what is the history of this Black Hawk and how did it come to be in New Zealand?

“This Hawk (S/n 86-24572) started life in 1986 as a troop carrier but was converted into an electronic warfare model (EH-60A) shortly thereafter. It was converted back to troop carrying and served in the first Gulf war before finding a new life at Fort

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Above from left: Down there is where the swing yarder’s anchor stumps went; This Komatsu PC400 was also used in the salvage operation; The forwarder/shuttle truck where it came to rest after the landslide.

Below right: The Washington 188 Sherman tank base on the pad it was toppled.

Rucker, training pilots,” says Mark.

“In 2015 the US commenced its ‘Black Hawk Exchange and Sales Transactions (BEST)’ programme where older UH-60 Black Hawks were sold from the US Military. In June 2018, I was successful in bidding on S/n 86-24572 from the US Government online auction site, selling the BEST Black Hawks in the US. Thereafter I went about certifying and importing S/n 86-24572 from the US to New Zealand to commence commercial operations.”

Well, it’s good to hear that it’s New Zealand owned versus the Mil17’s (leased with Russian pilots) and Boeing Vertol 107 (visiting from Oregon USA).

Mark adds, “Our Hawk arrived in New Zealand in June 2019 and shortly thereafter was registered as ZK-HKU. Following the death of my mother in May of 2019, myself and my brothers named HKU ’Rose’ in memory of her.”

What mods were made to make it more suitable for the heli-logging role? “We added a bubble window for the pilot to lean out of and view the area where the long line and grapple operates picking up logs. We

have also reduced the wheel fairing on the same side as the logging window so the pilot has unobstructed views below.”

What was the prescription for the Whitikau operation? “To clear a tributary leading into the Whitikau stream of fallen logs which had been felled and left. There were also some areas of the immediate hillside above the tributary that required logs to be removed, so the risk of them sliding into the stream was mitigated.

“278 tonnes were moved 80-120m to a more stable location.”

Asked what he has found the Continued on page 24

Grooved Drums and Sleeves

DIAGNOSE • DESIGN • DELIVER

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Above: 1. Operator, Neville passes the strop down to Shorty; 2. and 3. Shorty removes smaller bits of native slash; 4. Neville and Shorty breaking out; 5. Shorty in the streambed with some of the debris; 6. Neville and Shorty making the strop.

Below: Neville dragging a log out of the stream with the Komatsu D65P.

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Far left: Photo map of some of the stems Kahu NZ lifted.

Centre: Brothers Mark and Dave Law heli-logging. Dave is leaning out the bubble window to work the grapple 200’ below.

Left: Close-up of the new grapple (note the 45 degree angled teeth for grip on the slopes).

From page 21 maximum viable flight time (or distance) per drag to be for commercial harvesting operations, Mark says: “For exotic, 100m to 750m is ideal.

Anything between 750m to 1000m is marginal. Over 1000m it’s normally not financially viable. For Native we charge per lift or hourly rate. We normally operate between 1-3km. Sometimes we are out to 5kms.

The Hawk uses Jet A1 fuel at around 500-520 litres per hour with 3.6-tonne lifting capacity.

As to species and locations, Mark says, “We have lifted mostly Rimu, some Tawa and Matai. The locations are scattered around the North Island. These lifts are derived from annual logging plans (ALP’s) established by the land owner, faller and with approval by MPI. Re exotic, only Pine thus far.”

Other services to the forest industry include: “Slash removal, thinning, equipment or small machinery transport, recovering logs that might have fallen into areas where the forester doesn’t want them to be that can’t be recovered conventionally, firefighting support, log extraction from areas that can’t be accessed by hauler or road or for islands or areas bounded by water.”

Grapple development Let’s dig into this new grapple Kahu NZ is using. “Myself and my brothers have used a number of grapples over the years when helilogging and had a basic wish list for our good friend Damon at Damon Collins Engineering in Taupo. He has a lot of experience fitting and repairing logging equipment for the CNI harvest and trucking companies. He is also a helicopter pilot, so knew the various issues we were exposed to when flying and heli-logging,” says Mark.

“We sketched up a basic model, which had about

a two-metre opening and Damon cut and welded the grapple together mid 2021. We used two rams to ensure a strong grab. We tested it in the workshop and were pleased with how it went.

“I used a company in Australia for the onboard hydraulic motor/ reservoir to provide the pressure through 200’ feet of hydraulic hose to the grapple. The same company provided the switchology for the pilot to open and close the grapple from his collective.

“We coupled these components together and took it out logging pine. At this stage we hadn’t added any major teeth to the jaws as it was primarily working on pine for the short term before we got into some native, so we were looking to keep puncture damage to a minimum.

“We had some issues, most of these to do with the grapple itself.

The forces on the jaws and the various other parts were extreme and damage followed.”

Well that’s to be expected really when you’re trying to find the sweet spot between light enough to fly good volumes per drag while also strong enough to do it.

Mark continues: “We lifted some Matai, (much harder wood, renowned for quality flooring) and without sensible teeth on the jaws and the main frame unit, trying to log on the steep country, we had an incredibly frustrating time. Lots of things

Kahu NZ’s Black Hawk at the staging area for heli-logging at Whitikau.

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W Tu ha

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didn’t go well. Time for an overhaul.

“Damon altered the grapple to the new ideas and requests that were generated by the previous experiences. We redesigned the shape of the jaws and increased the opening to 2.7m and ensured one jaw was longer than the other to help position the passing grapple onto the log. We painted the longer jaw so we could identify it easily when grappling the log.

“We welded on large teeth, to both sides of the main frame unit and angled these 45 degrees out so when the grapple sat over the log which was often lying on a 30-50 degree slope, it wouldn’t slide down the log away from the butt end, where we needed to grapple the log for the lift.”

They also added some smaller teeth to the mid jaw area and welded a subtle spike to each end of the jaws.

Mark says this was a major game changer and they haven’t looked back. “The grapple grabs anywhere you put it and grips the life out of the log. We have never lost a log in flight and we are all adamant we never will.”

Future plans are to relocate the hydraulic motor on top of the grapple and remote it from the helicopter to do away with the 200 feet of hydraulic line and the hydraulic/

motor and reservoir that sits in the back of the helicopter. This will reduce a lot of weight and the delicate management of the hydraulic lines running down the long line to the grapple.

“It’s super easy to damage these so without this risk, logging will be made a smidge easier,” he says.

“We have recently developed clip-on jaws to the existing jaws so we can use it for slash.

In time we will flight test this innovation but it will mean one grapple for both roles.

“Discussions are also in progress on how we can add a saw to the grapple so we can grab the likes of trees with root balls on them and cut them off or grab and saw problem slash logs caught under other logs or buried in the mud. For logs on the slope that are too dangerous to buck, this could be a real good option. The obvious issue of saw jam and bar break is the main ponder point but we think we will crack that. If we can, it will be an awesome addition to an amazing grapple.

“I have to say special thanks to Damon for his engineering skills and persistence ensuring it performs to its best, and cheerfulness when us pilots break his beloved grapple.”

Heli-logging underway in this tributary.

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Iron Tester: Tony Hill

THIS IS AN ISOLATED BLOCK WITH some of the steepest terrain in the East Cape area. It’s a long, winding two-hour drive through a fair bit of native bush to get to it.

I have done drives to work like this before

The view from the operator’s seat of the Komatsu D65P.

but you don’t want to be doing that. It takes its toll on the boys and the gear and most crews learn pretty quick that it’s not worth doing. It’s got nothing good going for it really but it’s good to see it being tidied up and stabilised with the D65.

My Dad taught me to run bulldozers when I was five or six. He just used to leave me to it pushing tracks in on a JD 850 which was the Rolls Royce of bulldozers.

I’ve run mostly Komatsu dozers in logging crews up to the D85’s. We used to extract logs with dozers religiously back in the day in the back of Hawke’s Bay. I used to break out for them as well. Pulled a lot of wood with an arch on a 527 and a D6 at Lew Prince’s crew.

Dozers are a good, cheap and reliable way of getting wood out and they are good on the environmental side as well being able to dolly up your track, keep rutting to a minimum and get good traction in the winter without clawing huge holes in the ground.

They basically just faded out as everything went mechanised as a dozer with a grapple didn’t work too well. I’d love to see a newer build dozer with a grapple that actually worked well.

In the past the Komatsu D65’s were a common dozer for rope pulling wood, so they’re an ideal choice for this role salvaging debris from flood-damaged creeks and

Iron Tester, Tony Hill. shifting leftover logs from the forest operations that had come down in Cyclone Gabrielle.

This machine is easy to climb into and maintain your three points of contact and it has a good low centre of gravity for manoeuvring around hills and unstable ground, and being a flat track type dozer it has a bit of a larger footprint on the ground for traction and winching drags.

The guards are generally tucked away nicely to minimise damage. There’s good vision from the cab even while it’s bush rigged. This makes it a bit easier to be pushing around and tracking into these tight areas without losing any dirt/fill into the nearby water courses.

It’s got really simple and user-friendly controls as Komatsu has stuck with the same layout generally throughout their dozers, so it’s really easy to familiarise yourself with this machine.

The battery bays.

The Komatsu D65P pushes a storm-damaged Washington 188 swing yarder over the flooded Whitikau Stream while a Komatsu PC400 tows from the front.

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IFICATION

SPEC S KOMATSU D65P – SPECIFICATIONS ENGINE 6-cylinder, 8.27-litre, Komatsu SAA6D114E 163kW @ 1,950rpm SAE (219hp) Net Power Max Torque 1050Nm @ 1450rpm TRANSMISSION Type Torqflow automatic, with manual change facility and lock-up clutch Max speed 11.3km/h forward (13.6km/h reverse) Max drawbar pull 34,250kg Steering Hydrostatic HYDRAULICS System type Max flow Pressure

Closed-Centre Load Sensing (CLSS) 248 L/min 27.9 MPa / 2 85 kg/cm² / 4,050 psi

BLADE Width Height

3410mm 1200mm

The blade has a good shape so it’s quite easy to rehab any turned soils and cut tracks during this salvage process, to go as far as skimming the road after hauling wood up it to maintain the shape and smoothness. The blade on this machine is fast, and smooth enough to maintain a nice grade while using it.

Typically I operate my felling machine and sometimes my loader which I’ve recently bought. I fill in on all our machines across two

Lift Height Capacity

1139mm 4.61m3

WINCH Type

Carco

REFILL CAPACITIES (LITRES) Fuel tank Coolant Engine Hydraulics Final Drives

415 49 30.5 48 27 (each side)

DIMENSIONS (MM) Length Width over track Height Ground clearance Operating weight

5,585 2,390 3,155 410 19,510kg

crews including the swing yarder, processor, backline or tracking machine. This dozer is quite a bit less technical to use than those machines so it is an easy machine to run.

It has plenty of stability and it’s got responsive gearing and is fast on its feet. For an older machine high in hours, it still operates as it should. It’s a good point for Komatsu showing that they build long lasting machines. NZL

DIA DG I ANGONSO E S•E D•E D S IEGS N I G•N D•E D L IEVLEI V RER

Tall Timber: Part One

BOOM AND BUST After 23 years building a logging contracting business in his own name, Robert Stubbs is out. He fought for a more stable business environment but wound up paying a deeply personal price. In this special two-part Tall Timber report, Ian Parkes talks to Robert about his journey, the challenges and the lessons he learnt.

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OBERT STUBBS (STUBBSY) WAS, and is, one of the driven, largerthan-life personalities that tend to thrive in forestry. He is well known on the East Cape and his leadership in the industry saw him rise to become Chairman of the Forest Industry Contractors Association, until the failure of his business prompted him to resign just six months into his chairmanship. Robert was, in fact, forced to quit the industry altogether. His business was liquidated and he has declared himself bankrupt.

Robert had risen above setbacks before, setbacks that would have finished many lesser characters. He lost the use of his legs in a terrible accident, and later his

relationship with his partner with whom he had raised two children, but as anyone who has met him knows, he is the kind of person who will fight on.

Several times Robert had pulled his forestry business, Stubbs Contractors, out of one of the industry’s regular economic whirlpools and built it back stronger, employing up to five crews and 60 to 70 people in its heyday. But not anymore.

Liquidation, and a string of creditors have seen to that. Robert is now putting his experience in heavy machinery to work as a salaried manager for a civil contracting firm.

He has a new partner, more time to spend with her and his grown-up stepchildren when they visit from Perth

– his stepdaughter had her second child just before Christmas – and he has time to reflect where it all went wrong. As is always the case, a combination of circumstances piled up but Robert won’t let himself off the hook. He says he should have seen the signs earlier and acted sooner. He should have followed some well-meant advice to retrench his business more thoroughly and more decisively than he did.

But, as Robert says, when you have built a big business that so many people depend on, you just feel compelled to ‘keep feeding the beast’ and keep people employed and support the community with business. And perhaps his very strength of character, the fact that he had fought back out of the pit and won against all kinds of odds in the past gave him an unshakeable faith that if just kept pushing, he would eventually win through again. Finance companies and banks though, have their own, different drivers.

In May 2023, the liquidators moved in and put all of Stubbs Contractors’ equipment up for sale. In a matter of hours, the business Robert Stubbs had spent decades building was gone, the yard stripped, a convoy of transporters carting away the heavy machinery he had come to know so well.

But the pain didn’t stop there. Robert, like many small to medium businessman, had issued personal guarantees against a lot of debts or loans. Robert says he knows he should have put reserves aside or built up assets to cover those debts but that is another of the things he now regrets.

Sharing the pain Robert agreed to this interview on the basis that there are other companies out there struggling and if they can learn from

Robert Stubbs is now running fleet operations for a civil engineering contractor in Gisborne.

30 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

his experience and avoid the same fate, especially in the volatile logging industry, he would be glad to have helped.

Realising the game was up when he couldn’t make his finance company payments was hard but the blows fell thick and fast after that; the appointment of a liquidator, advising clients he would have to pull out, telling his staff but, even then, the great emptiness left after the sale of equipment at his yard came as a shock.

“It all sort of happened pretty quickly once the dotted line was signed, that’s for sure. There’s probably never enough advice for each person about how it all plays out.

“They took over pretty smartly, the liquidator tuns up on the doorstep,” Robert says. “They just took over, basically repossessing all the equipment and getting it on transporters. The jobs all come to a halt pretty quickly.

“I sort of prepared myself for the finance company a week before and I was thinking it was going to be massive logistical job. You are talking, I dunno, 35, 40, bits of plant. You don’t expect 10, 20, transporters are going to turn up at each site in a day. I sort of tried to help in that whole process; you know down-towered haulers and getting them all packed up with Hiabs and bits and pieces but it didn’t play out that way. They had their own transport companies organised and they just started rocking into the jobs and picking gear up.

“It felt like all of a sudden. You know, legally up to this point, there was plenty of communication and I thought a bit of trust but as soon as it is signed over you are just kicked to the side really and it’s just ‘watch the show’. Pretty gut-wrenching to be honest, for the first couple of days – everything’s taken out of your control all of a sudden. All you can do is sit back and watch it play out.

“The day that it happened I had a crew here in Gisborne and two crews and a roading crew in Opotiki. The biggest amount of stuff was over in Opotiki so I made myself present in Opotiki to try to help co-ordinate it – you know the guys taking the gear were really accommodating with trying to use me to help them, but it just got to a point where they were under strict instructions that nothing more was to be working. All the gear needed to be walking towards the gate ready for transporters. No more loading out, no more cleaning up, whatever stocks were on the landing were left on the landing.

Top: The first ute ACC modified and supplied so Robert Stubbs could continue running his business. Robert could board himself and load the wheelchair into the tray.

Middle: Staunch friend, Rex Briant, developed the lift mechanism that meant Robert could keep driving the dozer.

Above left: Accessing the dozer at height on a trailer.

Above right: Success! Robert is grateful for Rex’s commitment to keeping him motivated and “putting a smile” on his face.

March 2024 | NZ LOGGER 31

Tall Timber: Part One Looking Back “It was strange driving back to Gisborne late that afternoon and going through the gorge. One transporter drove through with a piece of our equipment and 10 or 15 mins later there would be another set of flashing lights come round the corner and another transporter with another bit of plant on it. There were probably five of them on the way home so that was a bit of a tough pill to swallow.”

It’s one of Robert’s regrets that it happened so fast he didn’t really have the chance to talk to everyone personally.

“The Gisborne guys had got a little bit of a heads up in the morning but for some of them it was pretty unexpected. They turned up to work and these guys just rocked in on the job and told them it was all over, so I only got to speak to most of them afterwards. I suppose some of them could see the writing on the wall, a little bit earlier in the piece.

“I spoke to them all by phone and stuff, that day. I made sure I spoke to each of them and gave them the heads up as to what was happening and why.

“It was the same in the yard and the workshop. Again the liquidators were in control so they had organised an auctioneer to come through the place and label everything and prepare it all for an auction.”

Frozen out Robert didn’t attend the auction. He didn’t want to be there watching it and answering questions.

“As much as people have all got a right to go to it and pick up a bargain and stuff, you do feel bit aggrieved by it all and I didn’t want to go and think they’re all vultures hanging around, so it was best to just keep away from it.”

But then the big freeze happened.

Robert says the liquidators were in close contact up to a point after the auction.

They told me what they had received from the auction and apparently they were reasonably happy that it had gone alright.

“I was expecting to see reports from there on out, on the sale of stuff from

the finance company trying to get rid of equipment, but I’ve had just one report since then, just before Christmas. No more contact from the finance company and no more contact from a lot of contacts from all sides to be honest.”

Soon after the auction the personal guarantor letters started coming in. “The finance company had sort of given warning that that was on the cards. There was a significant gap between the valuation of the equipment versus what debt was left, so the threat was that they would be coming with personal guarantor letters as well. Then there were some that come from some creditors, and fuel companies, and you are left hanging with all of that stuff.

Robert doesn’t think most people realise the gravity of that commitment when they sign personal guarantees. They are focused on looking ahead and seeing the immediate growth that loan will bring.

“We forget about the need to protect ourselves, whether it’s with trusts or putting equity aside to cover that off if we ever close off the business, or it gets to that point, so for now to get those monkeys off my back the only way out is through personal bankruptcy.”

Top: Stubbs Contractors brought in the country’s first Caterpillar FM log loader.

Left: Stubbs Contractors’ logo was a familiar sight on new gear at the business’ height.

32 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

And that is even more personal than losing the business with your name on it.

Now that Robert has had time to reflect, he realises he could have thought the timing through a bit better, or he could have had better legal or financial advice.

“The monthly fuel bills could actually have been paid instead of being outstanding and it would have been a couple more monkeys off my back.

“That’s the catch, knowing when there’s no return and doing something about it. I suppose, in hindsight, had I known a lot more of this and maybe had a little bit better advice on it all, I definitely would have gone about things differently and not ended up in this position.

“I suppose for me, you know, over a 23-year cycle of business I’ve seen plenty of highs of lows in the industry. Why would this be any different? I suppose that’s what I believed and talked myself into… plus going through the time when I had my injury and ended up in the wheelchair and all of that disruption of the business… we went through another cycle of it then and managed to turn that around.”

Working with delicacy and speed.

Tall Timber: Part One Fly boy So, where did it all begin? When Robert left school he was interested in driving equipment and machinery, so he worked for the local earthworks contractor, then he got a chance to drive a grapple loader for LJ Willis who had come over from Rotorua with a loader. He was working for a local polytech running logging courses, and working woodlots.

Robert then worked in the mines in Perth, Australia, for a couple of years driving 120tonne diggers, 100-tonne dump trucks and D9 and D10 bulldozers. He came home for a while but was intending to get back to the big bucks in the mines, because he was hellbent on getting his helicopter pilot’s licence.

“I’d already got my fixed wing pilot’s licence while I was at school, driving tractors and stuff on the weekends. Every 120 bucks I earned on the weekends went on an hour’s flying, so by the time I was 17 and left school I already had my fixed wing licence.

“I came back here and got side-tracked with money, as you do.” He got a job in roadlining for a Rotorua-based contractor, Tony Henderson, who was also running a crew in the Mangatu Forest. Then he went to Dewes Contractors, again on a roadlining crew, doing harvesting and earthworks and building roads, all the time on the loaders or diggers.

“Sheldon Drummond offered us the contract to go out on our own as an owner driver. He was managing Juken Nissho at the time.

“So I started off as an owner-driver in one of their Bellis 85 haulers and a-yearand-a-half later took over the whole crew.

They still owned the hauler but I organised the crew and it started to grow from there.

That was 2001.”

Robert says the downturn, particularly on the East Coast, continues to bite. In November, Juken announced the closure of its Gisborne mill which was building products for export to Japan, at a cost of 60 jobs.

At the start of his career, Robert was still working very much hands-on. “I took that hauler crew over a-year-and-a-half after being in business and then, about another year later took over the second crew ground base logging for PF Olsen.”

Robert says this was probably the happiest time of his life. In a two-year period he had added two crews – the business was growing fast. Needing to upgrade his loader led to another personal highlight. He had heard of a purpose-built loader that Caterpillar had developed in the US – the FM model. It was available in Australia but not yet here. He went to Australia with Gough rep, James Mansell, at the time to check it out. He brought the first one into the country, and they proved very successful here.

“I started the business when I was 28; by the time I was 35 I had the two logging crews working plus the earthworks

roadbuilding side to it as well and then, at 35, in 2007, I had a motocross accident one weekend and broke my back.

“At 35 I had it all going for me, I had a business that was going from strength to strength getting busy. I was doing what I liked and enjoyed doing and I suppose the big goal was to get enough or produce enough time and extra money to continue on with my helicopter licence, but at the same time I was bringing up two young step kids and I was enjoying that as well, a girl, Jalea, and a boy, Regan. Then I hit a brick wall, as you’d say – I woke up in a hospital bed, unable to walk or move.

“I was racing motocross bikes on the weekend and I was jet sprinting that previous year in the national rounds. I had done really well at that and was looking forward to carrying on with that.

“I was leasing a boat off Rex Briant who was at the time New Zealand and world

Above: In his happy place: friend Peter Moore took Robert Stubbs along on a job about 10 years ago. Piloting a helicopter was where he really wanted to be.

Left: Nothing puts a bigger smile on Robert’s face than sitting in a chopper.

34 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

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champion and he was mentoring me into the jet sprint world.

“I had big plans for the following year racing jetboats, but motocross was always something I enjoyed doing.”

Down to earth He was racing in a local club event when he had the fall that changed his life for ever.

“I came off at very high speed. I just hit the ground face first and didn’t have time to tuck and roll up as you would normally.

I hit the ground face first and my legs came up over my back and severed my spine, T3 and T4; it severed the cord straight away.

“I was flown to Middlemore hospital that night. It was a week before they operated on me and put the vertebrae back in place and put some rods in my back. Then I spent three months in the spinal unit up there, the Otara Spinal Unit.

“Initially most weekends, every weekend just about, my partner was coming up and the kids maybe every second or third weekend. It was a big adjustment for them.

“As you can imagine it was a very low point, a tough time, but I was surrounded by plenty of good people though – good friends visiting each weekend, and Rex, who I was racing with, and a very good friend of mine, Darren; we have been mates since we were kids. He was very supportive, staying in the car park on

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Tall Timber: Part One

weekends when visiting. Everybody was, including Mum, Dad, my sister, and cousins in Auckland. It was a tough time: three months away learning how to deal with the changes and your life going forwards.”

Robert’s father-in-law stepped in to help keep the business ticking along but some of the forest owners were a bit worried about it. “I had to come back here a couple of times, so a good friend of mine, a helicopter pilot I went to school with, Peter Moore, came up and picked me up and flew me back – giving me something to smile about for a change, at the controls.

“We had meetings with customers and forest companies to try and reassure them that we were still managing the business.”

This same trip saw the arrival of the new Cat loader, which was shown off at the Gisborne local A&P show.

After the three months in the spinal unit Robert came home but he couldn’t move back into his house right away.

“It was probably just as tough again coming back home as it was having the accident. You get home and the realisation that life has changed hits you and how you are going to have to deal with it every day.

ACC funded a four-wheel-drive ute that was converted to hand controls and that he could get in and out of. He also got a side-by-side to use at work which allowed him to carry on and manage the business from the ute, and eventually, alterations to the house.

“It was a year before I got back in the house. I spent a year living in a motel in town while they made alterations or decided to make alterations to the house for me to get back into it.

“I suppose in some ways it was lucky that I had the business. There were long

periods there where I didn’t want to get up every day and deal with it. I just woke up one day and realised it wasn’t going to change, and I had to get on with it so, like I say, I was fortunate that I had a business to refocus on.

“So I managed to keep the business alive but markets in general go up and down and Juken Nissho ended up laying that crew off and I lost their work, but PF Olsen stood by me and kept one crew going, kept that working. There are

Drone shot of a swing yarder and loader at Te Puia.

36 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

Two or three years after the motocross accident, White Pointer Boats Managing Director, former jet sprint world champion, and friend, Rex Briant, modified Robert’s boat with a motorcycle throttle so he could strap in and race again. It was going well until he had a spectacular roll at Bay Park.

“Unfortunately, I bent the boat a bit, haha!” says Stubbsy.

people in your ear maybe saying you can’t do it and shouldn’t be carrying on with it, so I became motivated to make it happen, and do it from a wheelchair, and show that it could be done, so I just focused on the business again.”

“People rallied around me and motivated me. Rex modified my D8 bulldozer so I could get in and use it.

Staff would lift me into processors or diggers to operate when needed.”

Ten years after the accident, Robert and

his long-time partner separated and the business took another blow financially but, once again, growing the business provided something to focus on. It was around this time Robert established his yard, employing mechanics and a health and safety manager.

In the years just before COVID, Robert had built the business into one of the most respected on the East Coast, practising modern lean business methods and often leading the introduction of

new technology and techniques. As a member of the Forest Industry Contractors Association board and the Forest Industry Safety Council, Robert was also playing a leading role in transforming the entire industry. The future looked bright.

The fall, when it came, was devastating.

Next month, Robert explains how even a driven and proven successful business can be eaten away when short-term thinking dictates the rules in a long-term industry. NZL

Women in Forestry

“Too many going it alone” Prue Younger has been at the coalface of the industry through a volatile time as CEO of the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA) for the past six years. NZ Logger sat down with her to ask about her views on the industry as she retires, from the ‘cluster’ of disaster over COVID to everyday oversights like not seeking valuable opinions from workers on the ground.

How did you come to be involved with FICA? I was appointed as FICA CEO in April 2018 having been CEO for the Eastland Wood Council for three-and-a-half years in Te Tairawhiti. My husband and I moved to Hawke’s Bay that year and the role with the wood council was no longer viable. I was approached about the FICA position and was very keen to pursue a more national role as my time in forestry had been so interesting, and I believed I could do the job and make a difference.

What is your background?

Officially I am a qualified food technologist, having worked in the food industry for over 18 years and my longest position was with a company in Gisborne, Cedenco Foods Limited. I moved through significant career changes with them from Laboratory Manager to Technical Manager then to Marketing & Sales Manager – travelling extensively around the globe with our paste products and taking the lead in our larger markets, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. When I started a family I left full-time work and established an event management and PR company, Public Impressions – and life on contract has never given me cause to look back. The diversity of this business was, and still is, extensive and it gave me the introduction to forestry through supporting the establishment of the regional forestry awards with Matt Wakelin at the time from Ernslaw One. We struck a magical formula and have managed to roll the awards out to most regions around New Zealand, as well as taking them across to Mount Gambier, Australia.

This was how I stepped nicely into the CEO role with the Eastland Wood Council as I had worked six years with the forestry region and its people.

What have been the highs and lows for you over the years?

My highs were the first two years of my role. FICA was just picking up steam, then COVID hit with the downturn in markets at the same time – yes it was your ultimate “cluster”. We fought hard and worked even harder to keep our members’ heads above water, to support the industry, to offer support, but we lost some great soldiers over a long period of challenges. However, I 38 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

Above: Outgoing FICA CEO, Prue Younger.

Opposite top: The team at Action Forest Management, Nelson with Prue.

Opposite right: The FICA administration team with Prue at the 2022 Queenstown FICA Conference.

did feel like FICA had a voice after the work of becoming more visible and more credible went into the organisation in those first two years. Small wins are often the ones you go home to celebrate with a cold beer and I did that a few times!

What do you feel are the important issues in forestry today and how can we address them?

I believe forestry has a huge challenge with its social licence that needs addressing from across the sector – there are too many going it alone. We have come a significant way in that this year, with the establishment of the pan sector group, NZ Forest and Wood Sector Forum, and the opportunity to be honest and open in a room together. Members of that group represent significant sectors across the supply chain and therefore get a better understanding of what is happening and influencing others in forestry. I think that branding of our industry needs to be under one name, ForestryInc, to stop the confusion and reduce overheads and duplication. The NZ Wine industry group with the combined growers and winemakers has always been a model in my mind that could work for forestry too.

I am going to be bold and say that people cannot manage some of these roles by sitting at their desks, the sector relishes in face to face hui, and also there is a better understanding of the real issues when you get out in your hard hat and boots.

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Women in Forestry

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I also think that we need a Forestry Minister who really understands and supports us and does not have forestry as just one of his seven other portfolios – it just does not work. We don’t get the right attention across a number of government agencies and we then fight fires as single units. Greater unity, greater respect of others’ influences and hard work would go a long way – get everyone in the room and stop second guessing.

How have things changed during your time in the industry?

Yes things have changed over the last six years in this role.

One thing I have been conscious of is working with forest owners and, lesser, with the individual contractors, and some may question this but let me provide rationale to that statement.

Clearly FICA needs to be a credible body and working with groups and individuals of contractors does not transform the whole of industry – there are many more to take on a journey of change and forest principals are key whether through corporate or management companies. They are the ones that drive the content of contracts, drive market access and demand and work to set the specifications and scope of work for the contractor. A greater understanding of issues, a better understanding of how we can all work together and resolve these issues and a parallel approach, is far better than the master/slave model that has been hard to break down.

Have you found it difficult being in a ‘man’s world’?

You know I don’t believe there is any difference whether you are a male or female in this industry, I do know that the people respect you for your knowledge, your attitude and your value of what they all do as part of the supply chain. Sure, there are some technical skills I don’t have, but I have never suggested I did know – my worth is to find the right skills, to get the solutions for our industry from experts in the field and ensure the job gets done.

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Advice for men?

That’s dangerous territory for a female to give advice to men but to those that know me fairly well, the men don’t need advice, they need to be listened too, they need to see results and they want to be part of the solution. One thing I would say is that our workers on the forest floor are not asked enough for their opinions, and I find that difficult to swallow, as they work there day in, day out. The involvement of everyone even just to seek opinions would do the industry a lot of good – collaboration and being open to new innovations is key to progress.

The future for you?

Well, as I have said to a few people, it is not because of the people or the job that I am departing but for the 20 or so years I have to enjoy while in good health to do the things one yearns to do to tick off the bucket list of life. I have my life ahead planned to do what I want when I want and isn’t that what life is about in your prime? Travel features a bit, family features a lot and I know friends are there to have a tonne of fun with across those next 20 years.

Anything to add in parting?

I would just like to thank all those in the industry that supported me, trusted in me and called me regularly even just for a chat. I loved that and I loved ticking off a few big projects for the members which I hope will support their longevity in this industry. I feel humbled to have got to know this industry and privileged to work alongside people that work very very hard but also have a whole load of empathy and passion – and that’s saying something when you see some of these “true foresters” out in their gear taking on the forest. NZL

Your advice to women wanting to get into this industry?

If I have noted anything over my six years at FICA, it’s that women are a key to the workforce and are becoming very visible. There are women in forestry that have taken on a diversity of roles and from what the men tell me they value the skills women bring to the sector. They look after equipment very well, they get on with the job so efficiently and they offer a change, maybe an upgrade, to the crew culture. It seems very promising to have this acceptance of women working in the industry. I also note that many of the Future Foresters are females too and they are working their way through university to get their degrees and are always keen employees to get their steel caps and hard hat on and get out to the bush – it’s great to see.

40 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

From left: Ross Davis (ex FICA Chair), Paula Bennett MP, Prue Younger and Todd Muller MP.

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1. Phoebe Milne from Rayonier Matariki Forests with Prue Younger.

2. Zac and Andy from HighTrack Contracting, Nelson with Prue.

3. Prue Younger with PF Olsen's Craig Fisher in Hawke's Bay for the development of the Hauler Guarding Best Practice Guide.

4. From left: Brett Williams, Prue and Scott Reed.

5. Prue with Sarah Davidson (Women in Forestry) and Nick Tombleson, FICA Chair.

6. Joe Akari with Prue Younger at the Fast Forward Forestry Expo.

7. Timberlands’ Vaughn Warner with Prue Younger at National Fieldays.

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FICA.ORG.NZ

your voice The voice of forestry contractors since 2002

FICA Board Farewells Prue Younger FICA Chair Nick Tombleson says Prue has done a great job at the helm of FICA. “During her time as FICA’s CEO, Prue has led the organisation through both prosperous and challenging periods for forestry contractors. She has done extensive work developing FICA as an organisation, including raising the profile of FICA within the industry and getting contractors a ‘seat at the table’ on issues that affect them,” says Nick.

“Prue has been the key driver on some really important industry projects like the Yarder Tower Inspector Programme refresh, the Hauler Guarding TAG, the Immigration Class Exception for Forestry Work and more recently the drive to collaboratively create a Pan Sector Group which will be a game changer for the industry. Her drive and hard work have meant we have more of a voice now.”

“On behalf of the FICA board, we wish Prue well and extend our sincere thanks for all the work she has done.”

A Fond Farewell to the Role A MESSAGE FROM PRUE YOUNGER, OUTGOING FICA CEO I am finally realising that I am leaving my position as CEO of FICA, as this departure has been in the works since October 2023 when it was publicly announced. I have mixed feelings about leaving, but I want to express my gratitude for the support and kind words many of you have already sent me. I have formed some exceptionally meaningful relationships with industry professionals, forestry organisations, and government agencies that have worked with FICA to support changes and initiatives over my six-year duration.

When I took on the role in 2018, FICA needed a refresh, and there was an untapped opportunity to collaborate better with the government and establish a strong national presence. The visibility of FICA was called into question, and with my background in marketing and public relations, I was able to leverage my strengths. In the first two years, I travelled to different regions, met with national organisations, and raised our expectations of collaboration.

42 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

Two years into my tenure, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, causing our export market to collapse with severe impacts to the forestry industry. Like other primary industries, we faced challenges. Contractors were determined to keep their employees, even paying them out of their own pockets. The government provided support through wage subsidies, which was a lifeline for many. COVID-19 presented its own set of challenges as we navigated in and out of lockdowns and changing alert levels. Throughout this time, we worked hard to be recognised with exemption as a remote-working employer working in isolation on the forest harvest sites, but were declined ‘essential service’ status.

Eventually we saw many of our crews back to work under the “bubble of one” concept. Just as we were starting to recover, weather events further impacted the industry. This unforeseen setback resulted in the loss of more contractors from the supply chain than in any other year. We have been on the back foot since, and the future remains uncertain.

FICA.ORG.NZ These events were beyond industry control, but there are areas where the industry could have been managed better, leading to collective outcomes. We’ve often felt like we were taking one step forward and three steps back and despite many efforts to work alongside other sectors in the industry, there is room for improvement. FICA continues to foster understanding and respect for the entire supply chain and forest owners, whether large corporations or small management companies, or contractors themselves – all are reminded of our obligations to meet living wage standards, operate with good employment practices, and show support to ensure sustainability of this industry. Engaging with key sectors such as forest management companies and woodlot contractors has always been a challenge, and often the importance of connection and collaboration seems to take a backseat to maintaining a commercial bottom line.

Despite some areas in which I feel we have not been able to encourage transformation, let’s focus on the work that has been accomplished and will continue under my successor.

These achievements include the “Love our Work in Forestry” recruitment campaign, FICA Code of Ethics, notification response document, Fast & Forward Forestry EXPO, FICA Conferences, subsidies for silviculture contractors during COVID-19, the immigration exception to bring in 500 migrant workers, the Tower Inspection APP and CBIP Certification, Hauler Guarding Best Practice Guideline, “Find Your Fit in Forestry Recruitment Campaign”, leading the establishment of the Pan Sector Group - NZ Forest & Wood Sector Forum, and seats on the FISC Council, Industry Transformation Plan Steering Group, and the Food & Fibre CoVE. More recently work continues with the Be A Mate – Hei Hoa te Ngahere Programme and a review of the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP).

I am honoured to have led this organisation with a supportive board that provided strategic direction. I also want to thank the membership for their valuable feedback.

I am grateful to FICA for allowing me to participate in personal development programmes, including the Adaptive Leadership Diploma and the Diploma of Positive Psychology & Resilience.

I want to emphasise that the board is a voluntary organisation, and the CEO position is supported by parttime administration and marketing resources funded by membership and sponsorship. However, we have received additional support from loyal partnering sponsors and government agencies who recognise FICA’s ability to deliver on industry KPIs with credibility over many years.

Now, with 66 newsletters under my belt over six years, it’s time for me to trade in my hard hat and high-visibility gear for a paddle and life jacket, along with my running shoes.

My greatest hope for FICA is that the incoming CEO can continue the great work and support contractors, as the industry moves forward. They will face new challenges but will also have the opportunity to shape the future of our sector within the wider industry.

Prue Younger CEO, FOREST INDUSTRY CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION

Rowan Struthers is new FICA CEO Rowan Struthers has been announced as FICA’s new CEO, who is taking over from Prue Younger. An experienced professional who has worked across the forestry sector in various roles, Rowan has over 30 years of experience working in forestry.

He has held senior leadership roles in a diverse number of companies that include Fletcher Challenge Forests, Umbraco (a privately owned building suppliers company managing multiple sites), Hancock/Manulife and most recently Chief Operations Officer at China Forestry Group.

He has also been a member of the NZFOA executive.

FICA Chair, Nick Tombleson, says, “Rowan has a huge amount of knowledge across so many parts of our industry.

That will be of huge benefit to our forestry contractor members and we’re looking forward to drawing on his experience as we take FICA into the next period.

Rowan says that he is ready to take on the new challenge: “Over the 30 years I have spent in the industry, a key part of my success has been the collaborative relationships I have been able to develop with Contractors.

“A professional, efficient and sustainable contractor workforce is key to ensuring the long-term future of the NZ Forest Industry. This role is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to further the good work that has already been done by many. I look forward to the challenge.”

March 2024 | NZ LOGGER 43

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CORRECTION

In the previous issue, FICA announced the signing of the NZ Forest and Wood Sector Forum Pan-Sector Accord. The Climate Forestry Association logo was included in error and is not a member of this group. Here are the current members:

For more information visit www.facebook.com/NZFSF 44 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

2/02/24 1:55 PM

FICA.ORG.NZ

your voice The voice of forestry contractors since 2002

AB Equipment heading to Nelson for 2024 Forestry Fieldays AB Equipment will head to the Nelson area later this year for another Forestry Fieldays, following a successful two-day Hawke’s Bay and Central North Island event held late in 2023.

Due to be held in mid-October 2024, AB Equipment’s Forestry Fieldays will host loggers in Nelson and show off some newly released Tigercat, Sumitomo, Develon & Timbermax machines in action.

More information to follow about our Nelson Forestry Field Day in the coming months.

AB Equipment Product Manager, Mark Hill, says there was really good feedback from the last event.

“There was lots of networking throughout the Fieldays and the feedback was really positive. We had more than 26,000 views on Facebook which was awesome,” he says.

The 2023 Fieldays included a visit to Dan Mouatt and his team onsite at Bay Forest Harvesting off the Napier Wairoa Road SH2. The group saw a Tigercat 180 Swing Yarder running an Acme Carriage, a newly launched machine and the first of its kind in New Zealand.

They also saw a Tigercat LS855E Feller Buncher with a Tigercat 5195 Felling Head, Sumitomo SH3505 Processor and a Sumitomo SH240-5 Log Loader

FICA Partners STRATEGIC PARTNERS

in action. FICA shouted lunch at Westshore Beach Reserve before heading on to Taupo for a customer evening.

Back on the bus the next morning, the group went on to a second logging site near Turangi to see Thomassen Logging’s Ground Base operation working in a Wind Blow Forest with a Tigercat 890 Processor, a Tethered Tigercat 875 Logger & 625E Log Skidder, Tigercat LS855E Feller Buncher with a Tigercat 5195 Felling Head, Tigercat 620H Log Skidder and a Sumitomo Thank you to all of the organisations who support FICA, w SH3740TLW Log Loader. business growth and improved safety and efficiency amon

FICA Partners

the benefit of New Zealand’s Forestry Industry.

“We’re excited to be putting the event on again and give logging contractors the opportunity to get out STRATEGIC PARTNERS and about while looking at someone else’s gear. See you in Nelson in October.”

Contact Mark Hill for more info or visit www.abequipment.co.nz

BUSINESS PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNERS

Thank you to all of the organisations who support FICA, which in turn works to promote TO JOIN, CALL 0800 342 269 OR SIGNUP ONLINE AT FIC business growth and improved safety and efficiency amongst forestry contractors for the benefit of New Zealand’s Forestry Industry.

BUSINESS PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNERS

TO JOIN, CALL 0800 342 269 OR SIGNUP ONLINE AT FICA.ORG.NZ

Safety/performance/quality

Welcome aboard IN 2024 WE WELCOME ABOARD NEW and returning participants.

Gisborne-based Aratu Forests has joined the programme, with both its harvesting and silviculture crews coming into the competition in 2024.

Speaking with Jeff Cornwell, Health and Safety Manager for Aratu Forests, the crews are a competitive bunch who want to test themselves in the competition.

From the deep south, we have a couple of returning crews from the Rayonier/ Matariki estate. Welcome back to McCallum Harvesting and Swain Logging.

We look forward to catching up with all these folk during the year.

So, let the competition begin!

Remember, anyone is welcome to join the programme and enter into the spirit of competition.

Despite the challenges of 2023, it’s important to continue to recognise and celebrate individual and team excellence.

Over the next few issues of NZ Logger, we will include photographs reflecting this excellence and recognition.

Ka mau te wehi! Awesome individuals, awesome teams and awesome people behind the scenes supporting them in what they do!!

Sponsors – they don’t have to do this but they choose to!

Awesome companies, awesome people and awesome support!

They back you and your workmates to succeed as professionals, so why wouldn’t you support them?

They believe in what we do and what you do.

So, a big ongoing thank you to our Strategic Partners – STIHL and NZ Logger and sponsor SWAZI. The best way to keep our industry working is to get out and support those businesses that support New Zealand.

Participating companies This competition wouldn’t be what it is without our participating companies who have all participated in or continue to influence the way in which we operate.

We understand the commitment it takes from them to be part of Top Spot and value

their ongoing support and feedback.

Our ongoing thanks to: Rayonier/Matariki Forests, Wenita Forest Products, Ernslaw One, OneFortyOne New Zealand, Crown Forestry, Forest View Contracting, Makerikeri Silviculture (2020), Mitchell Silviculture, Puklowski Silviculture, Gutsell Forestry Services, Johnson Forestry Services, McHoull Contracting, Wayne Cumming Contracting, Howard Forestry Services, Inta-Wood Forestry, Heslip Forest Contracting, Otautau Contractors, X Men Forestry, Proforest Services, FM Silviculture, Tane Mahuta, Waikato Forestry Services, Rai Valley Silviculture, Thomassen Logging, Forest View Logging, Griffin Logging, Penetito Forestry, Pride Forestry, Mangoihe Logging, CMH Contracting, Kaha Logging, Roxburgh Contracting, Te Waa Logging, Mike Hurring Logging, Bluewood Logging, Storm Logging, Onward Logging, Down and Out Logging, Forest Pro Logging, Eastside Logging, Lahar Logging, Moutere Logging, JD Harvesting, Whisker Logging, Kimberly Logging, Dewes Contractors, Dempsey Logging, Aratu Forests, McCallum Harvesting and Swain Logging.

Into safety?

Into performance?

Into quality?

Contact Shane Perrett on 0274 781 908, 07 3483037 or at primefm@xtra.co.nz. NZL

Dewes Contractors Log 3 – Runner-up, Top Yarder Crew with Blair van der Maas, EOL Regional Manager, Gisborne.

46 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

J C A B P

Safety/performance/quality

The crew from Mike Hurring Private – Top Yarder Crew 2023.

JONSERED 1420S CAB OPTIONS AVAILABLE BUILT TO PERFORM

North Island: Andrew Farrell m: 021 591 049 e: andrewf@trt.co.nz

South Island: Matthew Tabb m: 021 755 263 e: mattt@trt.co.nz

Safety/performance/quality

The X Men Forestry team – Top Crew, Thin for Value.

Elroy Marsh, Eastside Logging.

Reece Tamanui, Raywood Contracting Log 4.

Rob Hawker, Forest Pro Log 1.

Stephen Dewes, accepting for Dewes Contractors Log 3.

48 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

ANOTHER SANY FOR FAST HARVESTING

TIGERCAT/WOODSMAN COMBO FOR THUNDER LOGGING

Smiley, Ange and the team at Fast Harvesting have taken delivery of a new Sany SY330H. Equipped with the full Ensign guarding package, high and wide and a Woodsman 750, this machine is the eighth Sany for the Fast Team! Sold and serviced by Shaw’s.

Thunder Logging from Central North Island recently took delivery of a new Tigercat 890 with a Woodsman 850 Pro. Operator, Jacob Williams (pictured), hopped off an ageing TC880 and onto the big 890. He reckons when high production is required this is the machine to have. Machine prepared and delivered by AB Equipment, Taupo.

BOAPOD FOR MJ FRASER LOGGING

CAT 340 FOR BLUE MOUNTAINS LOGGING

With over 30 machines spread across the Nelson region, MJ Fraser Logging has taken its hydraulic hose repairs in-house.

The BOApod mobile hydraulic hose repair unit will allow for reduced downtime and lower cost of hose repairs. The company has also implemented the BOA hose tag system and BOAhub hose management app into its business to help manage stock and improve efficiencies.

Blue Mountains Logging has taken delivery of this new Cat 340 processor, which is the first of its type to be put to work in the forest. The 340 is guarded by Ensign and features a Woodsman 850.

Operator, Les, says he is very happy with the power and smoothness of the new Cat. Sold by Mark Costello, Terra Cat Territory Account Manager Forestry, Rotorua.

March 2024 | NZ LOGGER 49

SANY SY305H FOR LEW PRINCE LOGGING

ELTEC FOR LEW PRINCE LOGGING

The team at Lew Prince Logging has taken delivery of a new Sany SY305H high and wide. Equipped with an Ensign cab and guarding package and a Duxson live heel and grapple, this machine will join the team in Napier. Sold and serviced by Shaw’s.

The team at Lew Prince Logging has taken delivery of the first Eltec FBL317L B series machine to be fitted with a QB4400 head. Operated by Tony Brightwell and cutting for three crews, there’s no one better to put this machine through its paces. Sold and serviced by Shaw’s.

SUMITOMO FOR JDL CONTRACTING

SECOND BOAPOD FOR BRYANT LOGGING

When it came time for JDL Contracting to change out an older shovel logger they settled on the Sumitomo 4040, having done their due diligence in the marketplace. The machine will carry out shovel logging and loading duties.

Seen here is Kayde Inglis taking charge of his new machine.

Machine sold and supported by AB Equipment, Taupo.

Bryant Logging has taken on its second mobile hydraulic hose repair unit from BOA Hydraulics. With 11 crews, the company is expanding its hose repair capabilities to further reduce its hose bills and downtime onsite.

50 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

CAT USED FORESTRY EQUIPMENT ®

2015 CAT 552-2 FELLER BUNCHER NEW PLYMOUTH 9,491 HRS  EQ056832  $330,000 +GST

2014 SUMITOMO SH350HD-5 FOREST MACHINE NAPIER 12,095 HRS  EQ056234  $238,000 +GST

2014 CAT 336D2L FOREST MACHINE PALMERSTON NORTH 12,539 HRS  EQ056552  $282,000 +GST

2017 TimberPro TL765C FELLER BUNCHER ROTORUA 5,687 HRS  EQ053147  $390,000 +GST

2014 CAT 324DFMLL LOG LOADER ROTORUA 15,094 HRS  EQ058582  $202,300+GST

2018 CAT 538LL LOG LOADER PALMERSTON NORTH 8,350 HRS  EQ057656  $215,000 +GST

2016 TigerCat 880 FOREST MACHINE ROTORUA 10,534 HRS  EQ057949  $235,000+GST

2014 TigerCat 630D SKIDDER ROTORUA 10,475 HRS  EQ057950  $55,000+GST

2019 CAT 950M WHEEL LOADER ROTORUA 5,737 HRS  EQ058893  $225,000+GST

2016 TigerCat LS855C FELLER BUNCHER ROTORUA 8,336 HRS  EQ056523  $392,000+GST

2014 CAT 555D SKIDDER AUCKLAND 9,049 HRS  EQ052986  $198,000+GST

2017 CAT 538LL LOG LOADER PALMERSTON NORTH 13,191 HRS  EQ058477  $227,500+GST

Contact Wayne Baker:

021 220 6773

Branches Nationwide TERRACAT.CO.NZ

NZ LOGGER classified

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ContactMarty MartyororBruce Bruce Contact Ph027 027324 3249091 9091 Ph 79Chambers ChambersStreet, Street,Tokoroa Tokoroa 79 enquiries@cdlloggrapples.co.nz enquiries@cdlloggrapples.co.nz

POA

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MANSELL NGAROPO

027 445 9840

A DIVISION OF

POA

POA

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Located in Hastings.

NICK CLARK

027 411 2330

POA

JOHN DEERE 909KH FELLER BUNCHER. 12,374 hrs. Top rollers instead of plates, head refurb at 4k hrs. Includes Satco 630 felling head.

JOHN DEERE E300 FORESTRY CONVERSION. New machine with Ensign 1730C Grapple. Located in Hawkes Bay. NICK CLARK

brandt.ca/nz

54 NZ LOGGER | March 2024

027 411 2330

Call 0800 4 DEERE for current pricing.

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027 411 2330

CONTACT OLIVIA TO ADVERTISE 027 685 5066

NZ LOGGER classified

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Sumitomo SH300-5TL 2015, 7500 hours Contact Lochin Smith - 027 204 7623 ALL PRICES EXCLUDE GST

View our full range online

www.dne.co.nz March 2024 | NZ LOGGER 55

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56 NZ LOGGER | March November 20242022

F A o T w A d

FL100 Felling Head Suitable for carriers in 30 ton + range. starting from $102,419.00 limited time only.

For more information contact:

New & Used Product Sales -

North Island - Karl Christensen 021 192 6567 South Island - Gerard Crichton 0274 794 664

H425X Harvesting Head

Suitable for carriers in 20 ton + range, $191,169.51

Waratah FL100 Felling Head

USED PRODUCT

Waratah 626

Waratah H290

#183 as traded.

Danfoss/TimberRite

Complete Rebuild, available early 2024, $TBC

New Zealand Stock NZ$ H290 Rebuild in progress, Available early 2024 TBC TBC H624C Rebuild available early 2024 H625C Complete rebuild, Available April 2024 $205,000.00 H626 #109, As traded, working prior to removing, $40,500.00 Danfoss Valve H626 #183, As traded, good working condition, $40,235.00 Danfoss Valve H626-S2 #216, As traded, good working condition, $65,000.00 Parker Valve H626-S2 #231, Low Hours, available mid-2024, $155,000.00 Parker Valve $POA H626 Full range of 2nd hand parts H626 Ex-Trade-in’s available in various conditions

Phone to discuss further.

Waratah 625C

Waratah 624C

Rebuild, available April $205,000.00

Complete Rebuild, available early 2024, $TBC

Australia Stock H622B Complete rebuild H622B Partial rebuild H616B As Traded

10% OFF

10% OFF

5%

AUD$ $240,000.00 $165,000.00 $ 11,000.00

15% OFF

OFF

Delimb Covers 10% off Measuring Wheel Rebuild Kit

5% off Grease Nipple Kits

10% off Full Head Cutting Edges

Waratah Forestry Services 24/7 phone 0800 492 728 or +6 47 343 1550 Northland CNI, Waikato, Wairarapa Mechanised logging services Waratah Forestry Services

Hawkes Bay Forestry Maintenance HB

Gisborne AB Diesel

Nelson Tasman Heavy Diesel

Blenheim Onsite Mechanical Repairs

Dunedin Heavy Diesel support

Southland Heavy Equipment Repair

Southland Frontier Forestry Ltd

Greymouth SM Hydraulics

15% off Chain Sharpener Discs

Komatsu Xtreme Excavators

Komatsu PC270HW

Komatsu PC270HW

Komatsu PC300HD

Komatsu PC300FX

Komatsu PC300LL

Komatsu PC300TL

Attachment Carrier

Attachment Carrier

Log Loader

Attachment Carrier

Komatsu PC270LL Log Loader

Attachment Carrier

Tractionline

Komatsu PC400HL Harvestline

The Komatsu Extreme models have been developed by collaboration between Komatsu Forest & Komatsu Osaka Factory to meet our tough forest conditions.

Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd 15C Hyland Cresent Rotorua, New Zealand John Fisken M: 027 771 5254 Paul Roche M: 021 350 747 E: info.au@komatsuforest.com

26238 Komatsu PC Range AFT NZL adverts D3.indd 1

27/10/2023 1:59 pm