Last week student James Baxter joined the Euroforest group to gain invaluable work experience in the forestry sector. Over the course of the week, James spent time with several staff from Euroforest, Blacklock Harvesting, and Pryor and Rickett Silviculture to experience first-hand what it is like to work in the forestry industry and to gain an insight into the variety of roles available.
Day 1: James’ work experience began at Blacklock Harvesting where he spent the day with Office Manager, Will Forsyth. Will gave a rundown of the office operations, a tour of the machines including how to log on remotely as well as information on the data that is recorded, and let James try his hand at using a harvester on the Komatsu simulator. Operator safety featured heavily in the discussions.
Day 2: James spend the day with Chris Hamill, director at Pryor & Rickett Silviculture. Chris demonstrated the interactive computer simulation for new plantings before heading out on site to experience the planning process.
Day 3: James joined Danny Burns, Euroforest’s Quality and Certification Manager who is responsible for ensuring the group of businesses remain fully compliant with international industry standards and regulations. James joined Danny on site audits where Danny discussed the factors the group undertake to ensure all our forestry operations are professionally managed.
Day 4: James experienced the start of a harvesting operation when he joined Fergus Simister, Euroforest Mid-Year Placement student on site. Fergus who was joined by Steven Parr, Director of Operations, talked James through the pre-commencement process of harvesting operations.
Day 5: James’ returned to Blacklock Harvesting where he joined fitter, Paul Jewitt. James was given the opportunity to talk to a number of harvester and forwarder operators about their roles and was given an insight into how operational sites were run.
