64 | “But it’s not about us, it’s about our people and recognising our people, and that is really important to us.” Moutere Logging FORESTRY Awards success ‘becomes aspirational’ Richard Loader Moutere Logging crew with their Achievement Award at the 2021 Top of the South Wood Council Awards. Back, second from left: Keegan Pomeroy, Daryl Sixtus, John Jamieson, Dale Ewers. (Front): Sam Stuart, Mark Grooby, Tuwhare Pui. Photos: Tim Cuff With two team members being recognised at the 2021 Top of the South Wood Council Awards, Moutere Logging’s Managing Director Dale Ewers says their well-deserved success is aspirational to others striving for excellence. Matt Goodall received the Tree Faller Excellence (Mechanical) award, while Blair Crawford received the Tree Faller Excellence (Manual) award. “Matt had been working for us for about fifteen years and is highly skilled at pretty much every job there is in the bush. While there are many very good-all rounders, Matt operates at a very high level in every aspect. In our business, with well over one hundred employees, there are only five or six people that operate at that level. Matt is now a registered trainer as well.” Dale says the skill of the mechanised harvester is not just about falling the tree, it’s also about placement, bunching, machine maintenance and operating a tether in steep country. An experience manual faller, Blair has been working for Moutere Logging for about 18 months and has established a reputation for an extremely high work ethic. “He just loves manual tree falling, walking around the hill with a chain saw. He is very productive and he does it very safely. “As well as being highly skilled at what they do, Matt and Blair are both really good human beings. I think it’s really good that we have people of that calibre working for our business. “But it’s not about us, it’s about our people and recognising our people, and that is really important to us. “In the background we have another eight operators who are motivated by Matt and Blair’s success and so it becomes aspirational. Other people say, that’s awesome, it would be cool being recognised like that. And everyone lifts their shoulders and asks what can they do next year.” Dale tells the story about one of his team members who was Trainee of the Year Runner up at the awards. Disappointed not to have won, he looked at what else he could do. “He was so motivated to lift his game that he has now been promoted to a 2IC role in a crew. The crew manager injured himself and been off for two months, so this guy has now stepped up and running the crew. So that was a trainee who was runner up in the 2021 Awards and is now providing relief as the crew manager.” Moutere Logging was established as a small two-person operation by Dale and his wife Christine back in 1989 and has grown to be one of New Zealand’s larger forestry contractors, harvesting about 850,000 cubic metres per year. Based in Brightwater, just out of Nelson, Moutere Logging operates seven logging crews in the top of the South Island, including Marlborough, and a further six crew working forests in the lower North Island. “These days all our crews are mechanised. There are trees that you cannot -mech-fall because of the steepness of the area,” says Dale. “Ten years ago we used to manually fall eighty percent of our wood and now we manually fall ten percent.” Dale and Christine also own DC Equipment, which manufactures logging equipment. “We come up with ideas from our logging work and then design and build them, selling them to forest industries throughout the world. We’re probably one of the leaders for change in that area. One of Moutere Logging’s key developments is the Falcon Forestry Claw — a motorized grapple carriage, designed to eliminate ‘break out’ accidents.” Dale reflects on Moutere Logging’s growth over the years and its success as a business and says the key is having good people and having respect for them. Matt Goodall received the Tree Faller Excellence (Mechanical) award. E N G I N E E R I N G Proudly sharing the load with Moutere Logging for 20 years Ph: 03 5449266 www.trinder.co.nz Your trusted partner in heavy transport design and manufacture
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