About This Career

Drives logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.

This career is part of the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources cluster Natural Resource Systems pathway.

A person in this career:

• Inspects equipment for safety prior to use, and performs necessary basic maintenance tasks.
• Controls hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
• Grades logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
• Drives straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
• Drives crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
• Fills out required job or shift report forms.
• Drives tractors for building or repairing logging and skid roads.
• Drives and maneuvers tractors and tree harvesters to shear the tops off of trees, cut and limb the trees, and cut the logs into desired lengths.
• Calculates total board feet, cordage, or other wood measurement units, using conversion tables.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves sitting more than one-third of the time
• Whole body vibrations, such as when operating a jackhammer

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
• Seeing clearly at a distance
• Seeing clearly up close
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel