When Tracie Gibbs was five years old, her dad introduced her to the thrill of professional racing and gave her the first glimpse of the direction her life would take. As she watched the action on the track, she was captivated by the National Hot Rod Association’s Safety Safari team, who wore bright yellow hi-vis suits and ran to help anyone in need. This was the job she wanted to do.

Today, as New England Forestry’s Director of Safety, instead of racing hazards, Tracie’s attention and efforts are focused on the hazards that come with working in the woods.

At its core, safety is about people. Fortunately, Tracie is passionate about forging relationships. When she first stepped into safety, she encouraged open and honest communication both internally within New England Forestry and externally with contractors. Safety quickly became a company-wide focus. In fact, it is now one of the company’s core values.

What started as a team of one has expanded to a safety department with five employees reporting to Tracie. In six years, she has taken New England Forestry’s safety program from one that had only a few measurable goals to one that is applying for OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) — the highest safety certification available.

Under her leadership, New England Forestry has launched a myriad of new reporting and training tools, including a safety app that can be used in the woods without access to cell service. In 2022, the company hosted safety training events in 8 states, helping the logging companies New England Forestry works with to begin developing safety programs of their own and educating more than 650 contractors on OSHA’s safety standards. You can learn more and watch a video about the logger safety training events here. 

Not like other safety professionals

No one goes into safety because it’s glamorous or an easy way to punch a timeclock, especially when it comes to the timber industry, which consistently ranks in the top three of the most dangerous industries in the U.S. Safety professionals are often thought of like police, but Tracie is not like other safety professionals. She doesn’t want to police her coworkers and contractors, she wants to help them think differently about safety. Her philosophy is that, if they understand why certain policies and procedures are in place, they will be more likely to adopt safer behaviors.

Loggers and foresters report some of the highest job satisfaction rates of any profession, but missteps in safety can quickly become a matter of life and death.

“I have three rocks on my desk from the first fatality I investigated. I wanted something to remind me of how I was feeling in that moment because it was the exact situation I wanted to help prevent.

“Seeing a tragedy like this firsthand and knowing there are things we can do—through education, training and maintenance—to help prevent this type of emotional, physical and financial mess from happening to others helped me see the disconnect and wonder what I could do about it. The experience personally changed me.”

Helping others understand why

Convincing folks in the timber industry to think differently about safety can be a challenge. Tracie’s mission is fueled by her passion for helping others and by a deep personal understanding of loss.

She also understands the types of “what-if” questions that pop up in the aftermath of a tragedy. Tracie’s father had a heart attack at work and his coworker, who wasn’t trained in CPR, was unable to save him. Since then, Tracie, who is a certified CPR and first aid instructor, has personally trained all of New England Forestry’s U.S. employees.

“When I’m talking to people, they understand my passion is genuine. Safety conversations are often about telling others what to do, but if you focus instead on what it means to experience a loss or feel a sense of fear about what might happen if you don’t behave in a safe manner, it helps them understand why they need to adopt safer behaviors.”

Day in the life

In Tracie’s world, no two days are the same, but there are some tasks that remain consistent from one day to the next. She begins each day by skimming her email and new near-miss reports to get an idea of what’s happening at New England Forestry locations across the country. She finds out if there are any major issues or fires to put out — sometimes this even includes actual wildfires.

While many of the tasks on Tracie’s to-do list are obvious, such as refining policies, working on new initiatives, reviewing safety communications prior to publication, preparing reports for New England Forestry’s Board of Directors and keeping up with OSHA changes, she also handles things that most people don’t ever think about. On any given day, she may help a department create a job hazard analysis (JHA) for the top four hazards facing their employees; determine how many straps need to go on a load before a truck leaves a landing and how far they can travel before they finish strapping; or work with New England Forestry’s safety mentors to help prepare for the upcoming VPP audits.

Tracie enjoys interacting with others and says, “When you know the people, you really connect.” Because of this, she goes into the woods at least once a week and is often on the road, visiting New England Forestry locations from coast-to-coast. As the main safety resource for New England Forestry’s U.S. employees and contractors, she likens her role to “keeping a ship going in the right direction all the time.” The rapport she works so hard to build is essential for making course corrections as safety issues arise.

Safety as a way of life

A commitment to safety doesn’t end when her workday is done. When Tracie is tempted to look at her phone while driving or do something else that isn’t safe, she asks herself if it’s truly worth the risk. She reminds herself and family and friends of their own value, so that everyone understands what’s at risk if they don’t practice safe behaviors.

“Safety doesn’t have to be painful. It doesn’t have to be intimidating. There are a lot of resources out there that make it accessible to everyone.”

A steadfast dedication to protecting others and Tracie’s willingness to challenge the way things have always been done have inspired her to extend her focus beyond the walls of New England Forestry’s safety program. She truly wants to show everyone that New England Forestry is passionate about safety and unafraid of sharing what they’ve learned.

“People in the timber industry take a lot of pride in what they do and how well they do it. I’d like to see them adopt that same level of pride in doing their jobs safely. To do the work we do should not cost a life.”

Tracie’s goal is to challenge safety practices industry-wide. She is convinced that the only way forward is for the entire timber industry to come together and raise the bar. Strong safety cultures are fostered when expectations and accountability pertain to everyone from the CEO or owner to the new hire breaking in that first pair of boots. It will take an industry-wide effort to improve safety statistics and get off the list of the most dangerous occupations. Everyone must get on board.

“Safety is unique because we all have the right to it. It doesn’t matter what job we have, how much money we make in a year or how we’re different from anyone else. We all deserve to be safe.”

Article written by Karie Kermath, Safety Manager, Western Operations

The post Tracie Gibbs Brings New Perspective to Forestry Safety appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

Actively pursuing “Safety as a Way of Life” is one of our core values at New England Forestry, not only for our own employees, but for the 100s of small, local-owned businesses we work with every day.

One way we recognize the great work our colleagues are doing to create a safer workplace is a monthly recognition called the Safety Star. This program recognizes contractors who are making contributions to improve the safety culture within their business.

Here are three recent honorees who were recognized by the New England Forestry team:

Dillon Stratton, 3D Trucking, Lake City, FL

Dillon was recognized for the innovative camera and driver alert system he uses on log trucks for his company.

“It costs more money to do the right thing, but we take care of our equipment because our employees are like family,” he says. “Some of them have been with me for more than 20 years. You can replace or fix a tractor that’s been in an accident. You can’t replace someone’s life.”

Each of Dillon’s rigs has a camera facing out through the windshield and one looking back down each side of the truck. This helps keep his truckers protected in case of an accident. In addition to taking video, the system records issues such as hard braking and speeding, which Dillon uses to coach his employees on safe driving techniques. He encourages his drivers to be active with Team Safe Trucking by awarding them a financial incentive for each class they complete. (Team Safe Trucking is an online driver training program designed for the logging industry.)

Dave Dilley, Dilley and Soloman, Forks, WA

Dave was nominated for his continued efforts to invest in new, safer logging technology for his company, Dilley & Soloman Logging Co., which began operations in 1987.

Prior to forming Dilley & Soloman, Dave ran his uncle’s small logging business for 10 years. Some of Dave’s employees have been with him since those early days, making them more like family than employees. Dave says, “A lot of our people have been with us for a long time. I want all of our employees to go home at night and be in one piece.”

About six years ago, he started investing in new logging technology. (Watch our video of him demonstrating winch-assisted logging here.) He was a little hesitant at first, but says that when he attended a steep slope logging conference, his eyes were opened and he bought in completely. Since then he has continued to add new technology and make other changes, such as hiring a safety officer, that enhance the safety of his business.

Kim Nettles, True2Shine, Wildlight, FL

As the Day Porter for New England Forestry’s Wildlight office, Kim, who works for True2Shine, is always on hand to clean up a spill or remove boxes and trash to keep walkways hazard-free. Not only does she keep things clean, but she also maintains the janitorial safety data sheets (SDS), keeps the safety closet organized, and goes above and beyond. She is always ready to help team-lift heavy packages and assists in packing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shipments to send out to New England Forestry offices across the U.S.

Kim loves being in the office and is dedicated to doing whatever she can to keep folks safe. When the worksite at a prior job wasn’t being properly maintained, a coworker was injured and Kim saw firsthand how keeping things clean and organized is critical for helping everyone stay safe. She says, “My job is easier when I do it in a safe manner—and when everyone else does their job in a safe manner.”

Continuing to Improve Safety Across the Industry

We’re proud of each of our Safety Star recipients for their leadership and initiative. We also recognize New England Forestry employees each month for their safety efforts in an internal Safety Star program, which we highlight from time to time on social media.

And that’s just one aspect of the way New England Forestry is working toward a safer workplace, not only within our forests, but across our industry. We also have a safety app that allows users to look up industry safety guidelines for equipment and materials while working. They can also report near-miss incidents, which can be used as a teachable moment for their peers. In addition, in 2022 New England Forestry hosted safety training seminars across the U.S. for more than 650 contractors.

We thank all of our colleagues, including Dillon, Dave, Kim and many others, for their continuing effort to improve safety for all of us!

The post Safety Stars: Recognizing Our Contractors’ Commitment to Safety appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

While safety has always been a priority at New England Forestry, we recently boosted our commitment by adopting safety as a core value. After all, priorities can shift, but our dedication to safety should be fundamental. Our hope is that this increased focus on safety will encourage employees, contractors and even competitors to take a hard look at their own safety practices and see how they too might evolve. 

Bill Monahan, New England Forestry’s Director of Western Forest Resources, describes his own safety evolution as one that has shifted from passive to active: “Early in my career, I thought about safety almost like it was a condition or simply the environment I was in—is it safe or not safe? Now I think about safety in an active way, almost like a mindset or a commitment to a set of behaviors.”

Creating a Series of Logging Contractor Workforce Training Sessions

This April, in an effort to encourage our contractors to shift their own safety programs from passive to active, the New England Forestry Safety Department kicked off an ambitious series of coast-to-coast Contractor Workforce Safety Training events that brought safety experts together with New England Forestry contractors to focus on best practices and OSHA training standards.

A core team of 12 New England Forestry employees and safety consultants traveled from town to town, and—with the help of more than 100 New England Forestry volunteers from offices around the country—conducted 15 sessions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington. 

By the end of June, this effort brought more than 650 contractors and 100 New England Forestry employees up to speed on OSHA requirements and prepared them to implement their own active, written safety programs by 2023. 

Mark Hebert, Director of Eastern Forest Resources described the trainings as “a way to demonstrate our commitment so we can have credibility to go to our contractors and convince them that we need to do this together.”

Designed to help us learn from one another

The unique event format was designed to keep participants engaged throughout a full day of training. During each event, attendees were broken into small groups that moved from one 30-minute roundtable discussion to another. This allowed participants to hear from eight different safety professionals as they learned to develop, maintain and enhance their own safety programs. 

The discussions covered topics such as maintaining a safe working environment, determining which OSHA standards apply to their business, building an effective safety program, keeping records that satisfy OSHA requirements and navigating valuable safety tools to help manage and strengthen their program.

Some of the larger events hosted almost 100 attendees, but by breaking into small groups, participants were able to get comfortable with one another and engage in more thoughtful discussions.

While many contractors shared common challenges, like how to keep workers focused on safety while also meeting production goals, others brought up unique solutions to common problems, such as making new workers more visible by having them wear a different-colored hard hat as they learn to navigate a dangerous work environment.

The Contractor Workforce Safety Training events were the brainchild of Tracie Gibbs, New England Forestry’s Director of Safety. Tracie is passionate about giving people the tools they need to stay safe both on the clock and off: “Safety is about people, and we can’t turn a blind eye or neglect the fact that this industry needs help. This is not about trees. This is not about real estate. This is about people. From road builders to loggers to beaver catchers to truckers to brush pickers, each individual is worth the incredible effort that New England Forestry has put into hosting these training sessions.”

Safety decisions can change our industry

Logging is consistently one of the top three most dangerous jobs in the United States, and it’s important to remember that the safety decisions each one of us makes affect more than just ourselves—they also affect our families, our coworkers and our coworkers’ families. 

During his presentations, Tom Hoffman of Site Safety Services LLC offered a compelling perspective to attendees. Early in his career, Tom was crushed by a rolling log and lost part of his right arm. Several months into his recovery, he decided that when he finally got out of the hospital, he was going to work in safety. He then spent the bulk of his career working for OSHA and investigating more than 300 fatalities in Oregon. 

When asked why he agreed to participate in the New England Forestry training events, Tom said, “You never get over when somebody gets hurt. You never forget what it looks like or what it feels like. Being part of this training has allowed me to talk about some of the things I’ve seen and done, and it’s helping me get through it.”

“Hoping” we’re safe is not enough

Presenter John Boren, owner of RÄV EHS Consulting LLC, said when he asks each employer what they’re doing to provide a safe workplace free from recognized hazards, they often respond that “they hope they’re doing enough, and they hope they never have a serious incident. It’s important to understand that hope isn’t really a health and safety strategy.” We want to be more deliberate when thinking about the safety of our teams. We want to use the specific tools that make our workplaces safer.

New England Forestry Safety Specialist Kathy Brooks explained why taking a step back to evaluate the effectiveness of a safety program is so essential: “There’s always room to improve, so it’s important to identify the things you’re doing well and find ways to improve the parts that aren’t working. Continuous improvement is the goal.” 

At New England Forestry, safety is a way of life, and we believe it’s time for the timber industry to take a step back and rethink our approach to safety. Our safety programs shouldn’t be kept private; they should be shared—with contractors and with competitors—so that we effect rapid and dramatic progress that strengthens the safety culture of not just one company but also of the forest industry as a whole. Safe workers benefit us all. We’re proud of our safety team for taking a step in the right direction with these Contractor Workforce Training events.

Article written by Karie Kermath, New England Forestry Safety Specialist.

The post New England Forestry Safety Team Trains 100s of Loggers and Contractors appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

GRAYS RIVER, Washington—Have you ever wondered how terrain that’s hard to even walk on could be used in forestry operations?

A technique that has vastly improved logger safety—and prevents erosion and sedimentation into waterways—uses a cable system to hoist logs high into the air to move them to flatter ground.

This popular method for moving logs off steep slopes has many names: tower logging, skyline logging, cable logging and cable yarding are among the most-used. 

This overview will help you understand how we use this type of logging in the Pacific Northwest:

Beginning with An Organized Cutting Operation

Before a tower is even brought to the site, a logging crew will begin by cutting the trees and placing them on the ground in a neat, organized layout that will make them easier to move when the time comes.

While some slopes have to be logged on foot with chainsaws, many steep slope logging jobs are now being done with a winch assist system, which anchors into flat ground above and supports vehicles on the slope with a cable. The driver of a machine that cuts the trees on the slope uses a remote to control how strongly the winch assist system supports his vehicle.  

Further Reading: You can learn more about winch-assisted logging and see a video of it in action in our story, Winch-Assisted Logging Boosts Safety on Steep Terrain.

Setting Up the Tower and Skyline

Once the trees are cut, it’s time to get them off the steep slope and onto a flat “yarding area” above the slope. In order to safely move them without damaging the ground, causing erosion or damaging the logs, we lift the logs high into the air.

To set the system up, first a large tower is put into place with the support of several cables called “guylines.” They connect to the tower and then anchor into place in various directions to ensure the tower remains steady against the weight of the logs.

The part of the tower that gives it height, referred to as a “tube,” can be 100 or more feet tall. Years ago, loggers used strong trees to serve as towers. But using man made, movable towers gives loggers a much more reliable option, with the added safety benefit of not having to climb a tree with heavy rigging.

Replacing Synthetic Haywire with Skyline Cable

Once the tower is anchored, it’s time to put the skyline cable in place. The strong cable, typically 1.25” thick, would be too heavy to carry across mountains. Instead, a lighter, synthetic cable called haywire or strawline is used first.

Getting this line into place can be dangerous: imagine how hard it is to walk up or down a mountainside, and now imagine doing it while carrying and unwinding 50 to 80 pounds of cable. The cable is usually 250 feet long, meaning it will take several trips to gather more cable to cover the thousands of feet between the slopes.

While it is still done on foot in many cases, large drones are becoming an increasingly popular, safer alternative. Rather than losing a day’s work or more having several people carry and disperse the cable, a drone can carry it through the sky. It travels from the tower to the “tailhold” the cable will attach to across from the slope the logs are on.

A tailhold can be a strong tree or stump that will hold steady under the weight of the cable and the logs it carries. If there isn’t anything strong enough, a heavy vehicle can also be used.

Further Reading: To learn more about how drones are now being used to put skylines into place, check out our article and video, High Power Drones Are A Safety Game-Changer in Tower Logging.

Once the synthetic line connects the tower and tailhold, a stronger cable is then led through a spool, followed by the thick, heavy skyline that will be used in the next step. (Depending on who you ask, a spool can also be referred to as a pulley, sheave or block).

Moving Trees to the Sorting Yard

With the skyline cable in place, a motorized “carriage” can be placed on the cable to carry the logs up the skyline.

How do the logs get attached to the cable? Loggers called “choker setters” attach the logs to a choker (or babbitt), which is a separate cable that hangs from the carriage. It secures the logs with an interlocking mechanism called a bell and knob. (The bell-shaped side is like a keyhole, while the knob is like a key).

Ed Bryant, owner of ENB Logging, refers to choker setters as “the guys out in the brush who make things happen.” In addition to choker setter, they have also traditionally been called rigging slingers and rigging men.

This method is preferred over using on-the-ground equipment or people to move the trees on the dangerous slopes. And while it might be easier to drag logs on the ground, that would create deep ruts in the soils and send sediment into nearby waterways. In order to protect the water and the ecosystems that depend on it, loggers use the airborne option. 

Further Reading: You can read more about how we protect waterways in forestry by checking out our video and article, How Foresters Restore Salmon Habitat in the Pacific Northwest. 

Preparing the Logs for their Buyers

Once the logs have made their journey off the slope and into a flat area called a yard, it’s time to prepare them for transport. This could mean removing their bark and branches with an aptly-named debarker machine. The logs also might be cut to fit into the trucks they will be loaded onto.

The logs also will be sorted by size, quality and species in order to best determine which mill each group of logs will be delivered to. The highest quality logs will be used for products like flooring and lumber. Lesser quality logs can be processed into pulp, which is used in thousands of everyday products.

Further Reading: You can learn more about the products that are made from logs by reading our #ItStartsWithTrees series. Here’s a link to the first article in the series.

The post How Tower Logging Works appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

FORKS, Washington—After more than 40 years of using chainsaws to cut trees on steep slopes, Dave Dilley remembers the first time he watched a winch-assist machine in action.

He stood in the forest, unable to take his eyes off a feller buncher as it eased up and down the mountain. Without the winch-assist machine, the buncher—a machine that efficiently cuts down trees and “bunches” them together—would be at risk of toppling, sliding or at least digging deep ruts into the soil. 

But the winch, a machine that anchors into place and supports the buncher with a powerful cable, enabled the buncher operator to move across the terrain easily, using a simple device to operate the winch-assist machine from within the cab of the buncher.

“I just saw where it would work here,” says Dave, owner of Dilley & Soloman Logging Company and a lifelong resident of this small town on the Olympic Peninsula in northwest Washington. It wasn’t long before Dave had two winch assist machines of his own.

The Logging System is Safer for Loggers

“The most important thing with this procedure is safety. It’s always our first concern,” says New England Forestry Timber Production Forester Dennis Cox, who encouraged Dave to make the change.

The logger agrees.

“You need less people on the ground, so there’s less danger. That’s the big reason we got into this type of logging,” he says.

Slopes that are too steep for a buncher have to be cut on foot. Loggers walk down the steep terrain and cut trees by hand with chainsaws. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in the industry. 

There are still some slopes that are too steep to operate a buncher on, even with a winch-assist machine, but the machine has enabled many sites to be logged in a safer, more efficient and eco-friendly manner than ever before. 

Helps Lighten Environmental Impact

“Logging operations on any slope steeper than 30 percent need some form of support,” says New England Forestry’s Senior Timber Marketing Manager Dan Stransky. That guideline, set by the Department of Natural Resources, helps ensure a harvest that’s safe for workers and the environment.

“They don’t want us putting big ruts up and down the hillside because, when the rains come later, all that water runs down those gullies and it delivers sediment to those streams,” he explains, “so it’s just something we work hard at avoiding.”

Seeing the Environmental Benefits of Using the Winch Assist Machine

Dave says the winch assist machine allows him to do his work with a lighter impact on the soils.

“There are certain spots where you have to be pulled” by the winch-assist machine, he says. “There are others I could probably log unassisted, but I’d be turning up my tracks and making ruts. 

“If I just push [the winch assist controls] to, say, a four, it just pulls me right up and doesn’t create any tracks.”

Up against the heavy rains this region is known for, the winch-assisted logging system is one of many ways New England Forestry works with contractors to keep sediment from reaching waterways. 

Why? Sediment would interfere with precious habitats in and around the water. It would also be harmful to our work, washing away the rich soils we’ve developed over decades of forestry. As we explain in the article Forest Engineers Build 100s of Eco-Friendly Roads and Bridges, we adjust all projects and operations to have the lightest possible impact on the environment.

How a Winch Assist Logging System Works

So how does a winch assist logging system keep a feller buncher from slipping on a steep slope? The base machine anchors into place on flat ground above the slope.

Dave explains: “You just dig, point the bucket all the way forward, and get it down.”

He double-checks that it’s secure by ensuring the boom doesn’t move. Then he connects the cable from the winch to his buncher and gets to work, using a remote to control the strength of the winch’s pull on the buncher.

As an extra security measure, if the winch assist base machine moves at any point after it is set, an anchor switch immediately sounds a blaring alarm and applies brakes to the winch drums.

Dave says the trickiest part is the logistics of figuring out how best to position it on each site, “but the machine itself is very user-friendly.”

An Organized Harvest

At ground-level, the results of a harvest operation may look messy. But the view from above shows how carefully-planned each step of the harvest is. The trees lay in neat, straight rows.

“When we log with this system, we get a lot less breakage. It’s very organized,” says Dennis, New England Forestry Timber Production Forester. “With a drone, when you look down on it, it should look like combed hair. And it does.”

After cutting finishes, a second operation involving a cable yarding system, also known as tower logging, is used to bring trees up the slope (again without damaging the soiles). At the top of the landing, they’re sorted and loaded onto trucks.

Harvesting in a Responsible Way

Dave has been in the logging industry for four decades, starting out with his uncle when he was a young man. He’s seen a number of changes over the years, and he’s proud of the strides the industry has made to protect loggers’ safety—as well as the environment.

Despite the stereotype that loggers “pillage” the land, he says, “we may be the best environmentalists out there. Yes, we do want to harvest, but we want to do it in a responsible way. We’re very conscious of streams and wildlife.”

The post Winch-Assisted Logging Boosts Safety on Steep Terrain appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

For years, Resource Land Manager Neris Biciunas puzzled over how to get rid of an invasive plant that was harming trees on New England Forestry’s Washington land. Called Scotch Broom, it is difficult to spot and nearly invisible from the air, except for a small window of time each year when it blooms with bright yellow flowers. 

Then Neris, who’s based in Forks, Washington, became one of New England Forestry’s drone pilots. He flew his drone as soon as the Scotch Broom plants bloomed, collecting aerial photos so he could develop a precise map of the plant locations across miles of forestland. Once the plants were located, his team was able to develop a treatment plan to get rid of them.

There are countless success stories like this that show how drone flights are impacting New England Forestry for the better. They’re used to take a quick initial look at a stand of trees, to monitor a contractor’s work, to more safely assess the devastation during and after a forest fire, and even to create 3-D images. 

After a preliminary “pilot” team tested how the company could use drones in 2017, New England Forestry saw the potential and launched the program nationwide, encouraging at least one forester in every U.S. location to get their FAA drone pilot’s license. There are currently 30 pilots on our U.S. team.

In New Zealand, our first employee pilots were trained in early 2018 after a couple years of working with contractors to test the impact of drones. Now we have a drone in each of the five regions in which we operate, with 15 trained pilots. The New Zealand team typically refers to their drones as UAVs, which stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

“We have some clever, motivated people who are determined to leverage this technology—and technology in general—to do existing work better and, even more exciting, find new ways to do more than we could previously,” says Forest Information Manager Joanna Drabsch, who’s based out of Auckland, New Zealand.

A New Perspective

“A drone allows us to see something we wouldn’t have been able to see any other way. It’s a tool that gives us a whole new perspective,” says Technical Analyst Sara Bellchamber, a self-described gamer who organized the U.S. program.

Based in Wildlight, Florida, Sara says one way she uses her drone is to help New England Forestry’s land resources team measure the depth of fill dirt pits using a program called Drone Deploy. The software uses images taken in a grid pattern and stitches them together into a 3-D image.

Sara says she has seen drones save costs, increase safety and save time throughout New England Forestry’s ownership. In the South, for example, they minimize the gap in time between the harvest of a forest and the preparation of that forest for replanting during Florida’s hot summers.

“After a harvest, you’d normally have to fly a plane to estimate what it will take to prep the site [for replanting],” she explains. “In high summer, there’s a haze in the sky and planes can’t take clear photos through it. But drones can fly below the haze, getting us the imagery we need much sooner.”

While planes are still the preferred option for imagery collection, work doesn’t have to grind to a halt if a plane is not an option.

Working with Drones in the Forest

Blake McMichael and Dan Hildebrand, both Resource Land Managers based in Jesup, Georgia, use their drones when they’re in the field assessing forests.

“One of the best uses I’ve found is for site-specific management,” says Blake. “It helps me delineate where treatments are needed and where they’re not. It’s not replacing boots on the ground, it’s giving us a birds-eye view we’ve never had before.”

Eliminating Hours of Work

For Dan, who’s been a New England Forestry forester for more than 30 years, his drone eliminates hours of work tromping through the forest to locate pre-commercial thinning candidates, trees with flaws such as forking that should be removed to make room for the optimal trees to grow.

When he first became a forester, “it used to be all boots on the ground,” Dan says. “But I’ve always been open to new possibilities.”

In hazardous conditions such as difficult terrain, drones can make a task much safer. Neris, the forester in Forks, used his drone to save himself from a long, cold walk to determine whether snowy roads would be drivable or not after a heavy snowstorm (they weren’t). 

“It took me 10 minutes to do with a drone what would have taken me 2 hours to do on foot,” Neris says.

That sentiment is echoed by many drone pilots across many tasks: work can be done quickly, accurately and more safely by incorporating a drone.

“My favorite way to use the drone is by using the Maps Made Easy software to quickly map a large area in high definition, then be able to convert that to a file which can directly be transferred to our GIS system,” says Graduate Forester Patrick Dravitzki, who’s based in Whangarei, New Zealand. “This is great for doing harvest reconciliation mark ups as we get an accurate measurement of the area which has been harvested, then compare that with the volume recovered to get a volume recovered per-hectare.

“This also solved a problem, as previously we had to walk the perimeter with a GPS or hand draw on a map. This method is a lot safer, faster and accurate.”

Using Drones to Prepare for the Future

The drone pilots share files and tips with each other and come together for a regular cross-country phone call, hearing new ways fellow foresters have discovered to use their drones in the field and helping each other expand their skills. The team is continuously trying to prepare for what’s next: several of the pilots are even part of a New England Forestry “super users group” tasked with staying on top of any future technological advances that could benefit the company.

Neris gives New England Forestry leadership credit for supporting the program from the start.

“They were receptive, asked hard questions, listened thoughtfully, and let us check it out,” he says. 

The result is a program that not only benefits New England Forestry now (one forester said the information gleaned in a single flight saved more money than the cost of his drone), but it’s also positioning New England Forestry for the future.

“Having a team of drone pilots, the infrastructure for the program, the experience and understanding how to use the data we’re collecting puts us in a very strong position for when the next development rolls along,” Neris says. “We’ll be ready.”

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New England Forestry’s forest rangers are like warriors primed for battle during fire season.

Patrick Hughes, based in our Coastal Resource Unit in Yulee, Florida, spends March through August watching the weather, communicating with local firefighters and taking preventative measures wherever New England Forestry land appears vulnerable. His tractor and radio are always close by, just in case.

Preventing Forest Fires

Throughout our ownership, we rely on forest rangers to prevent fires on our land and our neighbors’ land. Their first job when they survey a stand of trees is not to see the trees at all, but to see the fuel around them—the dry brush, undergrowth, and other risk factors that could feed a fire.

The team creates “fire breaks” and “fire lines,” using tractors to clear wide trenches, eliminating fuel for a fire and making it less likely to spread past the trenches.

When it’s prudent to do so, they also take the lead in controlled burns, putting fire to work by burning off potential fuels in smaller, carefully-monitored burns in select portions of New England Forestry’s forests.

“It’s good training for us and it benefits the land,” Patrick explains, noting that clearing older undergrowth that competes with the trees creates room for new growth that’s attractive to wildlife.

“A Dangerous Time of Year”

Despite the ongoing preventative measures, though, “When there are high winds, low relative humidity and low rainfall… it’s a dangerous time of year,” Patrick says.

Those were the conditions when a fire broke out in early 2018 a few miles from Patrick in Yulee. A spark from a train had caught some brush on fire, quickly spreading toward a heavily populated area near New England Forestry land.

Rushing to the scene of a neighboring fire

Knowing that area has prevalent broom sage, a “flashy fuel,” Patrick rushed to the scene with a tractor fitted with a fire plow attachment. He saw that the fire was headed away from New England Forestry’s nearby land, but a local fire chief alerted him it was heading rapidly toward an apartment complex.

Patrick, who is temporarily deputized by the Florida Forest Service in fire emergencies, took his New England Forestry tractor and rushed to the scene.

The first to respond to the fire, Patrick found traces of an old fire line between the blaze and the apartment complex—a line he had plowed, himself, several years ago during a similar fire.

He replowed the line to create a wide, clear section of land between the fire and the apartments. Then he worked to put the fire out blaze-by-blaze (it had spotted, with separate fires in seven or eight spots, all moving toward the apartments). Eventually, close to 100 firefighters responded to the blaze. Thanks in large part to Patrick’s efforts, the fire never reached the apartment complex and was contained within four hours.

Want to learn more? Read about New England Forestry’s fire prevention efforts and hear from wildland firefighters here.

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