New Faller Supervisor Course Unveiled

By 250 News

The BC Forest Safety Council has launched a supervisor's training program that will be the first step towards certification for forest supervisors.

The new Basic Forest Supervisor course  is open to anyone who instructs, directs and manages forestry workers or anyone who aspires to be in a supervisory role.

It is a 3 day program  that  has 2 days of classroom instruction, a written exam and  one day of applying the lessons  in the bush. This course  is the  prerequisite program for the specialized faller supervisor training course.

Steve Mueller, director of the worker development program for the BC Forest Safety Council says the issue has surfaced in several ways since the Forestry Safety Task Force recommendation in 2004 which called for the implementation of uniform training and certification standards, beginning with supervisors. 

In a Council survey, nearly 1,200 experienced certified B.C. fallers identified supervisor training as a top forest safety need.  As well, a WorkSafeBC inspection of 300 forestry work sites last year found one-fourth did not have a designated supervisor at all and two-thirds of the supervisors who were present were not properly trained to oversee the work they were responsible for.  Also in 2006, a Coroner’s Inquest in the death of falling contractor “Turbo” Ted Gramlich led to a recommendation to design and implement a supervisor certification program.  Finally, in January 2007, BC Forest Safety Ombudsman Roger Harris detailed the need for proper supervisor training in his first report Not Out of the Woods. 

By the end of next year, the Council plans to be running other specialized supervisor training.  When taken with the basic course, these specialized training programs would lead to certification of supervisors in mechanized harvesting, log hauling, silviculture and other specialties. 

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