64 | Safety the priority for awardwinning firm Part of the company’s strategy has been for all work to be undertaken with machinery, to eliminate the need to have workers on the ground. ATS Logging T T Ruassell Fredric “We do try to go above and beyond with health and safety and how we manage our systems, how we have our crews’ view on it too.” FORESTRY Hauling in multiple accolades in the Hawke’s Bay Forestry Awards has become a familiar event for ATS Logging. On the back of their recognition in 2019 and 2022, at the 2024 forestry awards dinner held in Napier on November 15 last year, ATS Logging owners Toby and Amy Satherley and their team were stoked to scoop four separate categories. These were Hawke’s Bay Forestry Skilled Professional of the Year, plus Woman in Forestry Excellence to Amy, Harvesting Excellence to Mark Giddens, a crew supervisor, and Outstanding H & S Management to ATS Logging. Speaking about her personal awards, Amy says she was shocked and delighted, but is quick to defer to her “amazing husband” and ATS Logging’s staff. “If I didn’t have the people that I was working with, I wouldn’t have got [the awards]. I’m just a big advocate for the industry, making it professional, trying to get young people and parents to see that; that it is a professional industry to be part of.” Mark Giddens’ award related to his dedication regarding various aspects of logging and related operations, and in the wider industry. “He does an amazing job, [including] training our staff. We’ve got two of his daughters that are working for us as well. We are very family-orientated; my brother and my dad work for us; we’ve got quite a few staff whose children are working for us.” Toby and Amy were especially proud of the health and safety award. “That was a really big achievement for the company. That’s something that we see as extremely important in our industry and to be recognised for what we do. “We do try to go above and beyond with health and safety and how we manage our systems, how we have our crews’ view on it too.” External auditors repeatedly comment that ATS Logging’s staff are all genuinely invested in health and safety and have a really good attitude towards it, Amy says. “We’ve been using tablets in the bush now for seven years. We’ve got them online all the time; we are getting instant reports back, we’ve reduced our paper work but also made it easier for everyone to be able to fill in paper work, and it’s not just ticking boxes, it’s our crew culture. Production’s important, but safety is by far the most important.” Part of the company’s strategy has been for all work to be undertaken with machinery, to eliminate the need to have workers on the ground, and staff are encouraged to be proactive in having input into health and safety systems and policy. There have been none of ATS’s ground workers “down the hill” since the introduction of mechanised grapples about seven years ago. ATS Logging employs 32 staff, has three swing-yarder crews and one hauler crew, and operates about 30 items of machinery, including five logging processors, all supported by its own workshop with two full-time mechanics. The company mostly harvests and processes logs for Panpac and Forest Management New Zealand, which is great for its workflow. “Definitely having that consistency with larger companies in this industry is amazing for staff retention and for security for us as a business, but for our workers too, to know that they’ve got ongoing work without fluctuations.” Bay Tyres Onekawa FOR HAWKE’S BAYS LARGEST RANGE OF TYRES BIG OR SMALL, WE DO IT ALL! 100% LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED 47 Austin Street, Napier 06 843 9119 onekawa@baytyres.co.nz FMNZ manage over 185 forests, with a cumulative net stocked area of over 60,000 hectares. FMNZ Mission Statement: “To maximise the potential of every forest we manage in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner.” • Harvesting • Establishment • Planting • Inventory • Silviculture • ETS • Forest Management 06 843 3770 info@fmnz.co.nz www.fmnz.co.nz
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