Accolades for industry heroes
THE HAWKE’S BAY FORESTRY GROUP recently celebrated its second forestry awards ceremony since the inaugural event in 2019, at the Napier War Memorial Conference Centre. MC, Jeremy Corbett, managed a night of celebration and accolades for the local heroes of the industry, welcoming 360 guests at the Awards Dinner sponsored by Pan Pac Forest Products.
Forestry Minister, Stuart Nash, and Deputy Mayor, Annette Brosnan, acknowledged the winners. Minister Nash commented on the work by Future Foresters in promoting forestry. He also highlighted the important role the workforce sector would play in being part of the Industry Transformation Plan (ITP).
Minister Nash ended the night with the presentation of the overall Skilled Forestry Professional of the Year to Terence (Pnut) Ross who also took out the Roading category sponsored by ATS Logging. It was a great salutation to a forest “go to” and respected person in the industry as he looks to retire later in the year.
ATS Logging did extremely well on the night and their other employees, Tane Lee took out the Harvesting Excellence category while Hayden Mullins was awarded the Outstanding Health & Safety Management Trophy. To top that off, Director of ATS Logging, Amy Satherley, was runner-up in Woman in Forestry which was awarded to Chrystal Edmonds co-owner of Stirling Logging, having recently relocated to Hawke’s Bay from Gisborne.
Other outstanding recipients included D G Glenn Logging, stalwarts of the industry who took out the top award for Training Company/ Contractor of the Year and Torben Hunt (Turbo) also won the Tree Faller Excellence category. This role has been increasingly under pressure from continuity of work as the role is replaced across the country with technology and mechanised fallers.
Chair of the Hawke’s Bay Forestry Group, Damon Wise, commented that the “The Hawke’s Bay Forestry industry is in excellent health, proven by the calibre of nominations and quality of the Awards recipients. It’s important we don’t underestimate the commitment every individual makes every day to get the trees established, tendered, harvested, transported, and processed here in our region.”
He added, “The critical path to our future success is training and development and it’s pleasing to see this year’s judges have recognised the significant investment several businesses are making in this space.
“He aha te mea nui o te ao. What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people!”
A special award at the discretion of the judges each year, awarded a standout recipient that had done mahi above the expectations of their day-to-day work. This award went to GPFS and Ground UP Forestry company owners, Kevin and Belinda Humphreys.