Feller Buncher Operator

It sounds like a schoolyard insult, but the term “feller buncher” is really just a descriptive name. It’s a piece of logging equipment with a large metal arm and a spinning saw. It grabs groups of trees, cuts them, and puts them in piles so they can be picked up and moved.

The purpose of this machine is speed—a feller buncher can quickly finish work that would take a group of men hours to complete. A Feller Buncher Operator drives, maintains, and fixes this machine.

There are different types of feller bunchers. When you’re a Feller Buncher Operator, what you use depends on the size of the job and the type of tree you’re cutting. Feller bunchers are used when there’s a group of trees that need to be removed right away—on a building site, for example—or when you don’t want to harm the surrounding trees, like when you do thinning work in a national forest. Feller bunchers have a leg up on human Tree Cutters because they can work faster and are able to hold onto trees after they’re cut.

As the Feller Buncher Operator, you’re in charge of regular maintenance, which you do by replacing worn or old parts, oiling the machine, and making sure it doesn’t run out of gas during a job. A feller buncher can be a very dangerous machine, so you want to make sure you’re always aware of your surroundings, and updated on the latest in safety training. Accidents can happen on the job, so you need to know what to do in an emergency.