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One of the best parts of working in our sector is working with nature and all the amazing things we see every day.
This brings the challenge of how best to work or manage a site to achieve the end result while respecting what is around us. Every site, every tree and every day brings something different, and it is this unpredictability that brings some of our greatest safety and environmental challenges.
One of the ways in which we manage our risks are by risk zones – buffer zones from water courses, Red and Amber zones beside power lines, 2 tree length rule or risk zones around working machines are common examples. These are well established principles in the sector, yet we often receive near miss reports of these risk zones being breached. This isn’t an issue unique to Tilhill, HSE report that it is often a factor in incidents they investigate.
FISA has recently formed a Safety Zones Working Group (WG), a sub-group of the Chainsaw WG, to highlight the critical importance of safety zones in preventing serious and fatal accidents. This will include producing new guidance on the management of safety zones, case studies, and a range of other materials aimed at raising awareness across the forestry sector. We will bring you more news as the Working Group progresses.
