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By many measures, logging is the most dangerous occupation in the United States. The tools and equipment used in logging, such as chain saws and logging machines pose hazards wherever they are used. As loggers use their tools and equipment, they are dealing with massive weights and irresistible momentum of falling, rolling, and sliding trees and logs. The hazards are even more acute if you factor in dangerous environmental conditions. These conditions can include uneven, unstable or rough terrain; inclement weather including rain, snow, lightning, winds, and extreme cold, and/or remote and isolated work sites where health care facilities are not immediately accessible.
Logging operations are associated with felling and moving trees and logs from the stump to the point of delivery, and may include the following dangers: marking danger trees, felling, limbing, bucking, debarking, chipping, yarding, loading, unloading, storing, and transporting machines, equipment and personnel to, from and between logging sites. There are safety practices for all types of logging, regardless of the end use of the wood. These products include pulpwood and timber harvesting and the logging of sawlogs, veneer bolts, poles, pilings and other forest products.
Scope
OSHA’s logging standard establishes safety practices, means, methods and operations for all types of logging, regardless of the end use of the wood. These types of logging include, but are not limited to, pulpwood and timber harvesting and the logging of sawlogs, veneer bolts, poles, pilings and other forest products. The standard does not cover the construction or use of cable yarding systems.
Regulatory citations
- 29 CFR 1910.266 — Logging operations
Key definitions
- Cable yarding: The movement of felled trees or logs from the area where they are felled to the landing on a system composed of a cable suspended from spars and/or towers. The trees or logs may be either dragged across the ground on the cable or carried while suspended from the cable.
- Choker: A sling used to encircle the end of a log for yarding. One end is passed around the load, then through a loop eye, end fitting or other device at the other end of the sling. The end that passed through the end fitting or other device is then hooked to the lifting or pulling machine.
- Danger tree: A standing tree that presents a hazard to employees due to conditions such as, but not limited to, deterioration or physical damage to the root system, trunk, stem or limbs, and the direction and lean of the tree.
- Designated person: An employee who has the requisite knowledge, training and experience to perform specific duties.
- Guarded: Covered, shielded, fenced, enclosed, or otherwise protected by means of suitable enclosures, covers, casings, shields, troughs, railings, screens, mats, or platforms, or by location, to prevent injury.
- Logging operations: Operations associated with felling and moving trees and logs from the stump to the point of delivery, such as, but not limited to, marking danger trees and trees/logs to be cut to length, felling, limbing, bucking, debarking, chipping, yarding, loading, unloading, storing, and transporting machines, equipment and personnel to, from and between logging sites.
- Skidding: The yarding of trees or logs by pulling or towing them across the ground.
- Yarding: The movement of logs from the place they are felled to a landing.
Summary of requirements
Employers must meet the requirements for:
- Personal protective equipment — 1910.266(d)(1)
- First aid kits — 1910.266(d)(2) and Appendix A
- Seat belts — 1910.266(d)(3)
- Fire extinguishers — 1910.266(d)(4)
- Environmental controls — 1910.266(d)(5)
- Work areas — 1910.266(d)(6)
- Signaling and signal equipment — 1910.266(d)(7)
- Overhead lines — 1910.266(d)(8)
- Flammable and combustible liquids — 1910.266(d)(9)
- Explosives and blasting agents — 1910.266(d)(10)
- Hand and portable powered tools — 1910.266(e)
- Machines — 1910.266(f)
- Vehicles — 1910.266(g)
- Tree harvesting — 1910.266(h)
- Training — 1910.266(i) and Appendix B