East Coast Silviculture specialist Reuben Mackey has an amazing story of personal growth that he would like to share as inspiration to others. Reuben has been in forestry since he was 20, about 25 years all up but until last year he had spent ve years as a full time father of four on a bene t. Ten years ago Reuben made a decision that has had a profound e ect on his life and the lives of others. He cast aside the burden of drugs and alcohol, and this is his tenth year of complete sobriety. Enforce Forestry – making it work Last year Reuben knew he had to get back into work and reached the crossroads of whether he worked for someone else, or take the brave plunge and become self-employed. “I was pretty good at forestry and I knew a lot of people in the industry, so when an opportunity came up to get into silviculture as a contractor I just went for it establishing Enforce Forestry, and I’ve never looked back. I started with a team of eleven people, including myself, and this year I’m geared up for a team of thirty, many of them family members. I saved all the money I made in the rst year and invested that back into the business. What really started all of this was when I went sober.” Reuben says that substance abuse has been rife throughout the industry but since he’s been sobre he has had space to think. “When you come from a background of substance abuse it takes a while for your head to come around. I’m totally free of everything, and its massive. I like to help people. I just really want to see people get ahead, rather that staying in the same old culture, going around in the same old circle. I want to o er them other options from drugs and alcohol and getting ripped o .” Reuben says it was always his ambition to get to the top of the food chain and now he just wants to give the younger ones a chance, and show them silviculture techniques so they can get to the stop of the food chain too. “The only way that I see young people moving ahead in life is to go straight and concentrate on work. I’m just trying to give back to them what I know.” Reuben’s opportunity came when Neville Brown, a private forestry consultant, o ered him work. When that work nished, Rueben’s company started contracting to PF Olsen, an opportunity that he has appreciated. Based in Gisborne, last year Reuben and his team focused on work around the East Coast but are now looking at taking a two year, million dollar contract with Carbon Farming, which will take them outside the region. “Until now our work has involved a lot of planting and spraying, but we’re expanding into pruning and thinning, which will give my team all year round consistent work.” Sobriety and good money management have been the bedrock of Reuben’s success, along with the support of his partner. “Women always have another way of looking at things, and it’s up to the man if he wants to listen.” Enforce Forestry Owner Reuben Mackey ENFORCE FORESTRY Phone: 021 0283 6751 enforce.forestry@outlook.com
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