Cover Photo Winner: Aaron Ferguson: Tigercat 822
Aaron Ferguson started out as a commis chef at the University of Stirling in Bridge of Allan. A trainee chef’s wages were not sufficient to fund a young person’s lifestyle in the early eighties, so he began helping his dad, who was a tree surgeon, on weekends and holidays to make up the shortfall.
It didn’t take Aaron long to realise that the wages from the part time work surpassed his full-time work, hence he decision to make a career change. Collaborating with his father developed his chainsaw skills so he decided to move away from hardwoods and tree surgery, into commercial forestry.
This was a fun time to be working in forestry there was plenty of work felling with skidders or skylines and Aaron soon found himself felling with a local forestry contractor. Although it was hard graft there was great camaraderie within the squads. Aaron furthered his forestry skills spending time on the skidder where he learned how to correctly choker trees and manoeuvre the skidder successfully in off road conditions.
The opportunity arose to work in Germany assisting with the clearing up of windblown timber after recorded winds of up to 138mph had decimated forests. He worked out there for five months and gained valuable felling experience in dealing with storm damaged trees. He also had the opportunity to hone his skills as a machine operator using a Bruunett and Kockum’s forwarder along with a bulletproof Timberjack 380B grapple skidder.
On his return he began work with a skyline squad in and around the Aberfoyle Forest District. Every day was different as he could be felling, working along with the skyline, or operating the skidder, he enjoyed the variety of work immensely.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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In 1994 an opportunity arose to work with the Dick Brothers Ltd from Galashiels who were putting together a skyline team. The skyline work took them all over Scotland and Northern England and they built up an excellent reputation for working to a high standard while being productive.
This was the heyday of Skylining in the UK. James Jones and Sons Engineering had the trailered Alp Skyline, GR Smith had the trailered Timbermaster, the Forestry Commission had the Chapel Hall Skyline and ABS Services at Killin were instrumental pioneers in experimental skyline setups. Aaron worked with many of these systems including a “first of its kind” A&B Services skyline set-up mounted onto the rear body of a Volvo BM forwarder.
The first time I met Aaron was in 1999 and it was in Ae Forest in Dumfries and Galloway. I had just started working for the Dick Brothers as well, and we were trialling the new red cab Valmet 860 to see how it would perform on a long steep climb. The timber was at the bottom of the valley and had to be taken up to the top by a forwarder to be stacked ready for collection to the respective mills.
Aaron was operating the digger winch and had dug out the track I was travelling. It was a versatile tool as it was wired and piped for attaching a Keto 150HD harvesting head. Once the winched trees started piling up, he would attach the Keto head and process the timber to clear space. He worked this for about four years until a serious fire saw it damaged beyond repair.
Aaron then progressed to a Daewoo 220LC-V excavator which was fitted with a Ponsse harvesting head and began to harvest more of his own sites with this harvester.
Aaron’s first purpose-built harvester, a tracked levelling Timberjack 759G with a 758-harvesting head was in 2005. The Timberjack climber lent itself well to the steep terrain and larger sized trees he was harvesting throughout the central belt.
In 2008, after a brief stint working in America, I started back with the Dick Brothers. I got a call to see if I would work in the Trossachs area following Aaron’s harvester, as his regular forwarder operator Sandy McLoed, had been taken ill. Aaron and I worked together for about a year until Sandy returned and had a great working relationship. Jump forward another few years and Aaron found himself with his first new Tigercat, an 845 LH with the LogMax 9000 head. The Timberjack was passed on to another operator who had just joined the company.
As Sandy approached retirement age, he preferred working closer to home, so once again I started forwarding behind Aaron’s harvester. We worked together for the next four or five years. The Tigercat was replaced with a larger Tigercat, the 855LH with the LogMax 10,000 harvesting head fitted with a top saw. This was particularly useful especially when harvesting snapped storm damaged trees. This saw the end of our partnership as Aaron was destined for a role as a roaming harvester, going from site to site to harvest large and heavily branched trees that wheeled purpose-built harvesters would not look at.
This did not go to plan as the enforcement of movement orders for transporting large equipment made it a bit more difficult to move the Tigercat as frequently as originally intended.
About 4 years ago the 855 was replaced by the smaller Tigercat 822LHD with a LogMax7000 twin harvesting head and this was the one that features in the winning photo. The photo was taken at an awkward site near Glenample near Lochearnhead in Stirlingshire.
Aaron cannot think of any other work he would enjoy doing more. He has been collaborating with Dick Brothers Ltd for over 30 years and has been fortunate to see some of the best scenery Scotland has to offer. When not working, you will find Aaron in some forest or other, in his other role as a Rally Car Marshall.
Forest Machine Magazine is written and edited by a forest professional with over 40 years hands on experience. We are dedicated to keeping you informed with all the latest news, views and reviews from our industry.
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