CONTRACTOR FEATURE
Wainwright
forestry
Lincolnshire forestry contractor Steve Wainwright served
his time as a steel erector. His engineering skills led to a
chance encounter, in his time off, with a forestry machinethat needed the attention of an experienced metalworker.
Informed by the contractor that there was always aplace for the self-employed entrepreneur in forestry
establishment, Steve could not resist the temptation to setup business on his own account. Hilary Burke tells us more.
20 MAY 2018 FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UKF
ENCING, spraying and tree planting
were the main tasks at the start. Steve
soon became aware that additional
manpower would be needed to ensure
that the contracts were carried out in a
timely and efficient manner. The erection of
a fenceline, for example, proceeds apace if
operatives are available to deliver posts, dig
in strainers and stretch out the wire ready for
the fencer to put it under tension. Likewise,
putting up a full crew on planting duty when
ground conditions are optimal can see
establishment contracts flow along very well.
That said, Steve admits that when a deadline
approaches and a new forest of trees must
be put in the ground, poor weather can make
the job really tough. All of the youngsters
Steve has employed have struggled through a
few of those miserable, back-breaking days.
Many have benefited from the experience and
have forged a career in forestry contracting;
a few have gained their academic forestry
qualifications and are now in a position to
include Wainwright Forestry in their contract
tendering processes.
Steve still relishes the prospect of putting
nursery transplants into the ground, protecting
them and maintaining the competing
vegetation. With almost 30 years in the
industry, the satisfaction has fairly recently
been much enhanced when his son Lee and
the Wainwright Forestry harvesting team
thinned a woodland planted by Steve and one
of his early squads.
Even in his schooldays Lee Wainwright had
worked with his father planting trees, erecting
fences and suppressing weedy growth. Tree
surgery qualifications were acquired at
Lincolnshire’s agricultural college, Riseholme,
but Lee admits he was always just as keento fire up his chainsaw early in the morning
and spend the day cutting timber in the local
woods.
As it happens, his father was considering
the benefits of adding timber harvesting
capacity to the business portfolio and
a Valtra tractor with a roof-mounted
Botex loader and a Botex forwarding
trailer was acquired. While there was
now plenty of work for the cutters, a
medium-sized mechanised harvesting
system would ensure the forwarding
trailer’s bolsters were constantly
filled but allow the release of
operatives for more time-
sensitive contracts, such as
booked-in arboricultural
work.
Jim Watt at Caledonian
Forestry in Auchterarder
was able to supply the
perfect machine; a Komatsu
PC130 with Kesla stroke
harvesting head. It was
ideally suited to working
the small woodlands and
shelterbelts so common in
the East Midlands. Coarsely
branched spruces, bendy-stemmed pines and twisted
hardwoods could rarely
challenge the steady
power of the Komatsu/
Kesla combination.
The success
of the move into
mechanised
harvesting,
according to
Steve, was only
made possible by
the commitment
and excellent
support of both
Komatsu and
Caledonian Forestry.
The Komatsu/Kesla not
only provided the perfect
stepping stone to larger
contracts with purpose-
built forestry machines but
also widened the experience
of the next generation of
machine operators.
On a frosty morning in
February Lee Wainwright and
Anton Dale were harvesting
Scots and Corsican pines on a
Lincolnshire estate a few milesSteve Wainwright has recently established
woodland on the gravels close to the east
bank of the River Trent. The trees will
provide a buffer for future flood surges
that occur in the English Midlands as
well as supplying raw material in the
future for the UK’s sawmilling and
wood-processing industries.