Ready?
Forestry Worker — your shift
Look up, plan the escape, cut the hinge — and never stand and watch it fall. Do the job one step at a time. Tap the thing that should happen next.
Full screen — no distractions
What does a forestry worker do?
You fell trees deliberately, in a direction you chose, using cuts that decide where several tonnes of timber is going to land.
Also called: logger, feller, forest operative.
A day looks like
- 1You look up before you touch anything, because what is above you is what kills people in this job.
- 2You clear two escape routes behind every tree before you start it.
- 3You cut a hinge and leave it — the wood you deliberately do not cut is what steers the tree.
- 4You walk away while it falls, watching upwards, never standing to admire it.
Hardest part
The tree decides in the last second. Everything you do is to narrow down what it can do, and you never get to be certain — which is why the escape route matters more than the cut.
Best part
A big tree going exactly where you put it, into the gap you picked, with the hinge intact.
How you actually become a forestry worker
- At schoolNo qualifications, but chainsaw certification is mandatory and not optional anywhere.
- TrainingChainsaw tickets by level — cross-cutting, small trees, large trees, windblow — each assessed separately.
- How longWeeks for basic tickets, years before felling large or compromised trees.
- Your first jobForest operative — brashing, stacking and cross-cutting before you fell anything standing.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the hinge and why does it matter?
- It is the strip of wood deliberately left uncut between the face notch and the back cut. It holds the trunk to the stump and steers the fall, and cutting through it removes all control over where several tonnes of tree goes.
- Do you need a licence to use a chainsaw professionally?
- Certification is required for professional work almost everywhere, and it is graded — cross-cutting, small trees, large trees and windblow are separate assessments because the risks are genuinely different.
- Is forestry dangerous?
- It is consistently among the most dangerous occupations recorded. Most serious incidents involve falling material from above rather than the saw itself, which is why looking up is the first step and not a formality.
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