THATS HONORS ERIKSSON WITH LIFETIME SAFETY AWARD

RELEASE: March 17, 2010

CONTACT: Neil Ward (301-838-9385)
nward@forestresources.org

Rockville, MD — The National Timber Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation conferred a special Lifetime Safety Award on Swedish logging efficiency and safety innovator Sören Eriksson at the Forest Resources Association 2010 Awards Luncheon, March 14 in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

THATS Chairman Tom Bosley noted the deep connection Eriksson had formed with the U.S. logging community during his decades as a consultant and promoter of innovative techniques, commenting, "This special recognition from the Foundation reflects our conviction that your impact on the safety culture of logging in the United States will last as long as forests supply mills."

In February 1977, Scott Wallinger of Westvaco noticed a "Nordfor" team training a Rigesa forestry crew in Brazil. Impressed with Sören Eriksson's training techniques, Scott arranged for Eriksson to work with independent logging contractors' crews in South Carolina.

Recognizing the potential of Eriksson's "open face" felling technique and other techniques to reduce forest worker injuries and fatalities, in the early '80s the American Pulpwood Association (now the Forest Resources Association) hosted a series of Eriksson's timber harvesting workshops in every region of the country.

At that point, Scott Paper hired Eriksson to train company logging crews, and Eriksson made the acquaintance of Rick Frost, who suggested the brand "Game of Logging" for Eriksson's training programs and their motivational component. The Game of Logging program caught fire with the logging community, and participation in the GOL competition remains strong throughout the U.S.

Eriksson has returned to Sweden, but anyone who visits logging jobs in the U.S. today can still observe the open face directional felling training in evidence in our woods.

THATS estimates that thousands of loggers have been spared severe felling injuries or death because they have participated in Game of Logging training and have incorporated its means of evaluating each move defensively to avoid the risk of injury in timber harvesting.

The special Lifetime Safety Award is the National Timber Harvesting & Transportation Safety Foundation's commendation of Sören Eriksson, not only as a remarkable logging innovator but as an outstanding teacher, whose influence in the woods has worked a qualitative shift in the profession of logging.

The mission of the National Timber Harvesting & Transportation Safety Foundation (www.loggingsafety.com) is "to promote, support, and serve as a catalyst for safe and professional work attitudes, practices, and conditions in timber harvesting and transportation." The Forest Resources Association Inc., which administers THATS, is a national trade association concerned with the safe, efficient, and sustainable harvest of forest products and their transport from the woods to the mill.

######

Print Quality Image for Media Use (6.3MB)
(right click your mouse and choose "Save Picture as" from the short-cut menu)

Caption for photo: "FRA Chairman Dave Liebetreu congratulates Sören Eriksson, winner of the National Timber Harvesting & Transportation Safety Foundation's special Lifetime Safety Award."

Forest Resources Association Inc. (FRA)
600 Jefferson Plaza, Suite 350, Rockville, MD  20852
FRA National office telephone: 301/838-9385
Click here for FRA Staff and FRA Division contact information

FRA Site Map