Text: CABLE YARDING
Cable yarding – it's fast, efficient, and dangerous.
Every year, workers are seriously injured and killed while cable yarding.
All because they get caught in the way of moving logs and equipment.
Safe cable yarding is about getting in the clear and staying there.
It's about finding a safe position.
In this program, we'll review the key safety issues on the hill and at the landing.
They include: worksite planning and layout, safe work procedures, and winter yarding.
Text: Worksite Planning
When the rigging crew arrives on site,
all trees should be cut off clean at the stump and there should be no jackpots or hangups.
Danger trees must be removed from the perimeter and work area before yarding begins.
The timber should be felled to accommodate safe yarding,
preferably with the butt of the tree positioned towards the placement of the skyline.
If wildlife trees are to be left in the cutblock, they must be contained inside sturdy buffer trees.
If the wildlife trees interfere with the yarding process, they must be removed.
All wildlife trees must have a 1.5 tree length no-work zone around them.
If this is on a steep slope, you must remember
that the zone falls vertically out from the top of the tree.
It's important to have a no-work zone around a wildlife tree because
of the danger of falling debris or material from the top of that tree.
There may be some broken limbs, there could be a broken top, or just the general lean of the tree
could be such that if the wind were to take it or strike it,
it could blow it over or blow parts of it over and injure workers on the ground.
Text: Select Cuts
On select or partial cuts, it's preferable to fall trees
with their butts towards the placement of the skyline.
If possible, all the timber should be bucked.
Yarding corridors must be wide enough to facilitate
the safe yarding of felled timber.
Before yarding begins, wildlife trees must be clearly marked and all danger trees must be removed.
When you're looking at the location of wildlife trees,
it's important that they're marked and identified.
People need to know where they are.
They need to know what is the potential hazard,
if there's a no-work zone where they have to stay out of.
Text: Skyline Set-up
The correct set-up of the skyline is vitally important to its safe operation.
The yarding machine must be placed so that it will
not be struck by logs or other debris pulled in with the turn.
The running line must be rigged in a straight line from top to bottom,
but not perpendicular to the hill.
The rigging crew must never have to find a safe position directly below the landing.
If a back spar is being rigged,
there must be an unobstructed corridor from the back spar to the anchor or tailhole.
There is a no-work area of 1.5 times the height of the back spar around its base.
When the rigging is under load, no one can enter this area.
The back spar must be supported by a sufficient number of guylines.
There is also a no-work area around the tailhold.
As with the back spar, you cannot enter this area when the rigging is under load.
If a standing tree is used as a tailhold anchor, it must be secured by additional anchors.
On select cuts, if the skyline is rigged with an intermediate support tree,
there is a 1.5 tree length no-work area around it, which cannot be entered when the rigging is under load.
When we're looking at skyline set-up problems,
probably the most common problem that we see is inadequate deflection in the planning process.
If you don't have adequate deflection, you end up with
the material – the timber – not being lifted high enough.
You have hang-ups, you have upending problems,
you have the potential pulling down of that skyline, the failure of it.
Text: Landing Overview
Landings must be built large enough to land the average size log in a turn.
They must also have enough room for a clear position where the chaser can stand when a turn is brought in.
The chaser must also have a designated safe position at the landing.
This is a place where he's free from the hazards of the yarder and all other equipment.
All guylines must be attached to anchors.
The strain on anchors is enormous, so they must be checked for stability
after the initial pull, before each shift, and if there is any change in conditions.
It's important to check the anchors daily because
the entire stability of the steel spar depends on those anchors,
and if those anchors should fail and that yarder goes over,
that endangers the landing crew and the rigging crew on the hill
because lines are moving and cables when they're moving are dangerous.
Text: Select Cuts
On select cuts, there must be a flare cut in the front of the landing
to accommodate the average size log being landed.
At the landing, there must also be enough room for the loader and chaser to work safely.
Text: Pendant Yarders
Running a pendant control yarder is often a one-man operation.
Because a tower will generally fail in the direction of a load,
the clear area for the operator must be located on the side of the yarder,
opposite to the direction of the pole.
Text: Work Procedures
The rigging crew has one of the most dangerous jobs on a yarding show.
This is because they are out in the cut attaching chokers to felled timber.
Before the load is sent, the crew must find a safe position in the clear.
This position should be above, behind, and away from the bight.
And at least 1.5 log lengths away from the closest log in the turn.
All of the crew must find a safe position in reasonable proximity to each other.
When you're looking at clearing distances you need enough time and distance to
allow you to react to anything that could be moving, changing, or shifting.
You want to have that safe distance to give you a chance to get clear.
The crew should not clear to a position under any debris or logs that could be pulled down on top of them.
It's the rigging slinger's responsibility to make sure the crew is in the clear
and facing the load before the signal is given to the operator.
The biggest safety concern for rigging slingers is remaining in the clear when that log goes to the landing
because if they don't, they're exposed to being crushed or killed by an upending log.
Text: Grapple Yarding
Good communication between the spotter and the yarder operator
is the key to a safe grapple yarding operation.
The spotter must always communicate his intentions and position to the machine operator
since they are often out of sight.
Spotters must not signal to haul the load until they are in a safe position, facing the load,
and all spotters must be trained in voice command signals.
When hook tenders are spotting for grapple, the biggest mistake that they make
is they assume that where they're standing they're in the clear.
And often the movement of the yarder, the swing of the yarder, and the movement of the lines,
you can have considerable situations where the line jumps and they get hit.
Text: Landing Operations
Safe landing operations often depend on
the working relationship between the chaser and the equipment operators.
Yarder operators must always be aware of where the chaser is in the landing
and must not initiate power until the chaser is out of the hazard area and in the clear.
When we look at landings on cable systems,
the number one problem is the inadequate sites, they're too small.
They're not allowing enough room to safely land timber and enough room
for the equipment and workers to work where they have safe zones and clearance.
The chaser must always be aware of the movement of the rigging, and unless they're in the designated safe area,
they must be standing in the clear facing the turn as it arrives at the landing.
Chasers must never enter the landing until the load has completely settled.
The most common mistake I see chasers making at the landing
is being too eager to go and unhook the logs.
And if they do that, they risk being crushed by a log falling in the pile
and breaking a leg or being struck by a line.
Loaders are a constant hazard at the landing;
therefore, it's important for the loader operator to always be aware of the movements of the chaser.
The loader operator must not enter the landing area while the chaser is present
unless they are requested to do so by the chaser.
Text: Winter Yarding
Winter yarding is especially challenging.
The cold weather slows down the operation and the snow hides potential hazards,
increasing the chances for accidents.
Winter hazards include hung up logs buried by the snow
and an increased likelihood of equipment failure.
When you're working on a cable yarding show in the winter time,
probably the number one hazard is not clearing an adequate distance.
The snow covers many of the hazards that just a week or so before you could see quite readily.
You need to be assured that you're in a safe location.
Working in the snow slows you down and increases the possibility of slips and falls.
This makes it all the more important for the
rigging crew to clear the turn before signalling the operator.
If there's one thing as a safety officer that we
could say to workers who are working on cable systems, be in the clear.
Be in the clear – that is the number one thing that
is killing workers on cable yarding operations
is not being in a safe area, not being adequate distance away from turns or equipment as it works.
As cable yarding continues to be a common method of moving timber off the hill,
it's clear that safe work procedures are of the utmost concern.
By ensuring that workers know where their clear position is at all times,
we can reduce needless injuries in cable logging operations.
It's about finding a safe position.