| 49 FORESTRY 24/7 CALL-OUT SERVICE FOR WHEN YOU NEED US MOST ADVANCEDWHEEL ALIGNMENTS FOR A SMOOTHER, SAFER DRIVE LOCAL EXPERTS YOU CAN TRUST - BIG OR SMALL, WE DO IT ALL ON FARM SERVICING Keeping Hawke’s Bay rolling! 06 843 9119 | onekawa@baytyres.co.nz | baytyres.co.nz Proud to support Bay Forest Harvesting Bay Forest Harvesting Safer logging the aim T T Virginia Wright Bay Forest Harvesting works out of Napier. It’s 20 years since Dan Mouatt started Bay Forest Harvesting working out of Napier, Hawke’s Bay. He’d already been in the forestry industry for several years and his road to ownership began with a percentage partnership with what was then Ribbonwood Hawke’s Bay, ending in his purchasing the crew and starting his own company in 2006. Although Ribbonwood had introduced him to mechanisation with their crew in Taupo, when he took over the Hawke’s Bay crew it was still Motor Manual, relying on men with chainsaws. Although he recognised the health and safety benefits that came with mechanisation, it was some years before Dan was in a position to start his own gradual transition to mechanised cable logging. “Using yarders and haulers with ropes to pull the logs off steep terrain where you can’t use tractors,” he says. Bay Forest Harvesting’s subsequent purchase in 2023 of the only working Tigercat 180 swing yarder in the country further enhanced their capability to deal with Hawke’s Bay forests’ typically steep terrain. Before forestry Dan had qualified as a fitter and welder, and his ongoing love of machinery meant that when he came across the Tigercat online he studied it and liked what he saw. “It’s a hydraulic yarder that I felt filled a gap in the forestry industry. It can do steeper terrain yarder jobs, and it can run without guy ropes which makes it a lot easier to shift around and move than conventional haulers,” says Dan. Bay Forest Harvesting now has two crews: the original one with FMNZ (Forest Management New Zealand) and one with PanPac which he’s had for close to seven years. Forest harvesting machines don’t come cheaply and 18 months ago Dan gave the same opportunity that he was given 20 years ago, to get a foot in the door of ownership, when he started a percentage partnership with James Macfarlane in the Panpac crew, he says. “The jump’s too big to go from wages to owning machinery worth millions of dollars so it’s how we get people started. That crew’s called Gone Bush Logging. It’s been a groundbased crew but as of August/ September we’ll be converting that crew into another cable logging crew involving another Tigercat 180.” It’s an investment that’s expected to pay for itself over time with both Bay Forest Harvesting crews well equipped to safely extract timber on steep terrain. Health & Safety is something Dan’s always taken seriously and over the years he’s seen a positive change in attitude across the board. Safety meetings and daily Tailgate (planning) meetings mean people are more likely to speak up and table any concerns than they used to be which helps maintain Bay Forest Harvesting’s Health & Safety record along with their reputation for taking care of the environment. As Dan says, working with their forest managers to manage environmental concerns, with good planning and communication, can take more time up front but generally leads to a better outcome for sensitive areas. That’s not new for Bay Forest Harvesting and it’s been recognised twice in recent years with their consecutive wins of the biennial Forestry Industry Contractors Association (FICA) Award for Crew of The Year in 2023 and 2025. The Awards recognised the difficult logging they’d done while maintaining both Health & Safety and Environmental standards. The forestry industry remains steady despite general concerns about the cost of fuel, and with their specialised high-capacity machinery and skilled crews Bay Forest Harvesting look forward to meeting that demand for the foreseeable future.
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