A safe visit to forest sites

Forest owners are welcome to visit a forest site as long as they follow these guidelines. The forest is yours, but it is also the forest machine operator’s or forest worker’s workplace. To ensure a safe visit, remember to tell the machine operator about your visit in advance and wear the required safety equipment.

Follow these Metsä Group’s safety guidelines when visiting a forest site:

  • Inform the machine operator about your visit. You can find the phone number in the message sent to you before the work began or on the site’s warning sign.
  • Always wear a high-visibility vest or garment, as well as suitable footwear, to the site.
  • When visiting a felling site or a site of other types of machine work, wear a helmet with a chinstrap and eye protector. If you do not have one, you can borrow one from the harvester operator.
  • Visit the site in daylight.
  • Maintain a safety distance of at least 90 metres to a running machine or felling operations. The safety distance for chipping is also 90 metres. The safety distance for clearing saw works and wood loading is 20 metres.
  • Ensure that the operator or forest worker notices you.
  • Wait for the machine to be stopped before you approach it.
  • Approach the site from the felled area, not from an unfelled forest where visibility is poor.
  • Never go under the machine’s boom.
  • Do not climb on top of a pile.

These safety guidelines also apply to wood loading and chipping.
Further information is available from your personal forest specialist or our local office.