The vision championed by Dale Ewers, which saw a raft of innovative forestry practices help bring about a massive reduction in harm incidents, has now led to his story being captured on video.
The short documentary-style video, Living for Logging – The Dale Ewers Story, has been released to act as inspiration to others working in forests in New Zealand and around the world.
The team at Dale’s businesses – namely Moutere Logging and DC Equipment – decided to celebrate the many years he has dedicated himself to keeping forestry workers safe, whilst still improving productivity, and to acknowledge what he has done for the industry.
Putting safety first
Long-serving employee, Dave Cropp, who works at DC Equipment says: “I’ve been here throughout, and the energy he’s put into (making forestry safe) has been incredible – he’s a real lifesaver.”
Moutere Logging tree faller and hauler operator, Adam Chapman, agrees and says that Dale’s approach to make logging safer and more effective has actually kept him working in the industry, instead of jumping ship.
“I don’t have to worry about others (in the crew) getting hurt – they are all safe now,” he adds.
That’s a big tribute to a man who started off as a sole operator in 1989 driving a bulldozer that he had to persuade wife Christine to mortgage their house to purchase.
How it started
His business really took off in 1997 when Dale was offered a 5-year contract, instead of living month-to-month and hand-to-mouth, which enabled him to expand to four crews in very short time. Moutere Logging has grown to become one of the largest logging contractors in New Zealand, with operations spanning the South and North Islands.
But with expansion, came unwanted issues; namely a rise in harm incidents due to people working in dangerous situations whilst falling and recovering trees on steep slopes, and through manually processing logs on the landing.
“One day we had three people (almost) wiped out in two different operations and I just thought there’s got to be a better way to do things,” remembers Dale, who was brought to tears witnessing the anguish of a family at the hospital bed of an employee injured in a forestry incident.
He vowed to find a solution; getting people off the hills and away from dangerous situations through the introduction of more machines and innovative methods to cut and recover trees.
In the video, Dale explains how a fundamental move to employ his first mechanic was the start of a process that saw him build a team of highly skilled technicians who shared his enthusiasm for researching new and innovative ideas.
Dale split the technicians and mechanics away from Moutere Logging into a new entity, DC Equipment, to concentrate on delivering those solutions, which led to the development of the world’s first successful grapple carriage, equipped with an all-weather camera.
Gaining traction in steep slope technology
More innovations followed, including the development of winch-assisted felling systems using a single rope, along with a plan to fully automate the log recovery process using state-of-the-art electronics.
“Where we are at today is a massive difference to where we were 20 years ago,” says Dale.
“We’ve proven we can reduce incidents by more than ten-fold.
“We have reduced breaking out incidents by 90%. And thanks to winch-assist, only 10% of trees are felled by hand and we’ve doubled the volume – we still think we can reduce that 10% hand falling to zero by 2025.”
Innovative tree falling and log recovery equipment designed and manufactured by DC Equipment in Nelson, is now sold and used in forests not just in New Zealand but also around the world.
That’s helping to save lives locally, as well as internationally, which is the key message the employees of Dale and Christine Ewers would like viewers to take away from watching the video.
View the video below
