Left: Fuel injected Stihl MS 500i saw. Right: Just hanging out with friends... Below: FB’s #TongueOutTuesday pose.
the job is like, and I always take time to answer all their questions and encourage more people to join this great industry. The training camps are always good for meeting new people and encouraging trainees to get as much experience in the forestry industry as possible. I just love my job and I’m sure a lot of other people would too. I graduated at the end of 2020 and, at the company where I work, I’ve been given the responsibility of training the new apprentice, which is very enjoyable. As I did, the new apprentice changed careers later in life – he is in his 40s and I’m in my 30s – which I think is cool and such a lot of fun. I also get a lot of technical questions on social media from newbies to the industry. These are mainly guys who I think are probably more comfortable asking me some basic questions about saws and saw maintenance as they don’t feel comfortable asking their male buddies about basic stuff! I wish everybody would just remember that we all start at the bottom and we only learn by asking questions. It’s better to applaud people in their search for knowledge rather than make them afraid to ask again. I would always prefer a job environment filled with skilled colleagues rather than people afraid to ask for fear of mockery. I’m still relatively new and learning all the time from more experienced colleagues. It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t even know how to start the saw, let alone maintain it. There is also a lot of fun doing social media, particularly on a Tuesday when I get a chance to do my trademark
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AUTUMN 2021 FORESTRY MACHINERY
#TongueOutTuesday expression, as I get so many requests from my followers if I forget to post a new one every week! DW: How big is the company you work for? FB: It’s quite a small company – there are only three of us and there will be a fourth person joining soon. We hire freelance skilled people when we take on bigger jobs and so on, but because it’s so small we get to know each other and work really well together. I keep in contact with a small group of other local female lumberjacks – some freelance and some in-company, but there are not that many of us. Out of a class of 28 on my course, I was the only female student! DW: How did you become a Stihl ambassador? FB: It started out with a couple of online chainsaw video posts from my own
Above: Stihl MS 881 with 47in guidebar – world’s biggest.
collection, and then when I really wanted to try out the new MS 500i chainsaw I contacted Stihl to borrow one to make a video and the company was kind enough to lend me one. After that, we just kept in touch as I borrowed a few more saws and I guess they liked what I was doing and they made me an offer to become one of their ambassadors, which is a great honour. It’s awesome to be a part of this fantastic and highly respected brand. I’ve also worked with Echo as an EAG member and also had the opportunity to work with Husqvarna, but I chose Stihl as I really like its equipment and find them to be more ergonomically suited to me, and they produce a large range of high performance and reliable chainsaws. DW: What does a typical day, week and month look like for you and your colleagues? FB: As I mentioned before, we have very different days but we normally start out on a Monday by having a team talk about the week ahead and planning the various jobs and workload. For us, that’s mainly tree cutting and pruning. Unlike in other regions, we all have to work in all functions – we all work as both ‘groundies’ and climbers, so one day my boss might be raking while I’m climbing, and the next day I might be out stump grinding while my boss is climbing and the other apprentice has ground duty. In a three-person team, you need everyone to be climbers in case an aerial rescue is needed. Each day we start at 7am. Working in and around Copenhagen, the weather is so
