The Taranaki forestry worker who planted a million treesFriday 25 Jun 2021
Fisher, of Hāwera, was recently honoured at the Southern North Island Wood Council Awards for his lifetime of commitment to the forestry industry. During his 56-year career, he worked as a log scaler, instructor and manager before establishing his own contracting business TAML Forestry in 1980. He was involved in setting up areas of native bush for the Queen Elizabeth Trust and planted native riparian and wetland areas, taking an interest in how they are protecting streams and rivers. And he carries a few scars from his work. A jagged line on his upper arm is from a chainsaw, after he slipped while using it to prune trees. Another time, he leapt off a four-wheeler as it was about to roll on a hill on a remote Matau farm and badly damaged his leg. He was alone, several kilometres from his cellphone in his ute, dressed in shorts on a cold September day. Unable to walk, he managed to right the upturned bike and sheltered from the wind and rain beside it for hours until his wife, alarmed at not being able to reach him on his cell phone, organised a search party. “Ann and I had a system where I’d ring her when I got back into range, and she’d ring me if she hadn’t heard from me by 5.30.” He was found about 8.30pm and got to hospital about midnight. “The doctor said if I hadn’t been found, I'd have died of hypothermia,” he said. After selling an 80 per cent stake of his company in 2016, Fisher went into semi-retirement and says he wouldn’t change anything about his career. “Forestry isn’t just planting trees; it’s road engineering, it’s logistics. There’s a lot more to it.” More >> Source: Stuff | ||
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