Some tasks in this role may be augmented by AI, but human oversight and interpersonal skills remain important.
Drive 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.
Also Known As:Buncher Operator, Chain Hooker, Cutter Operator, Delimber, Delimber Operator, Equipment Operator, Feller Buncher Operator, Feller Operator +50 more
Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
Drive 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.
Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
Fill out required job or shift report forms.
Drive tractors for building or repairing logging and skid roads.
Supplemental Tasks (2)
Drive and maneuver tractors and tree harvesters to shear the tops off of trees, cut and limb the trees, and cut the logs into desired lengths.
Calculate total board feet, cordage, or other wood measurement units, using conversion tables.
Education & Training
Job Zone 1Job Zone One: Little or No Preparation Needed
Education: Some of these occupations may require a high school diploma or GED certificate.
Experience: Little or no previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, a person can become a waiter or waitress even if he/she has never worked before.
On-the-Job Training: Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few days to a few months of training. Usually, an experienced worker could show you how to do the job.
Education Level Distribution
Percentage of workers in this occupation with each education level.
Less than a High School Diploma
55%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)
44%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)
1%
Technology & Tools
★ Hot Technologies
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Word
SAP software
Software (8)
BCS Woodlands Systems The Logger Tracker
TradeTec TallyWorks Logs
TradeTec TallyWorks TimeTracker
Tools & Equipment (38)
Cable skidders
Delimbers
Desktop computers
Digital tire pressure gauges
Drive-to-tree feller bunchers
Equipment trailers
Felling heads
Forestry crawler dozers
Forestry hoes
Forestry swing machines
Forwarders
Grapple skidders
Grapple yarders
Harvesting heads
Heavy duty chainsaws
Knuckleboom loaders
Loading grapples
Log forks
Log loaders
Log stackers
Log trailers
Log transport trucks
Log winches
Loggers' tapes
Mobile radios
Nailing hammers
Pocket knives
Processing heads
Protective safety glasses
Scarifier attachments
Tablet computers
Tracked feller bunchers
Tracked harvesters
Tractor cranes
Tree saws
Truck mounted boom loaders
Wheeled harvesters
Yarding grapples
Where This Career Leads
Career progression organized by specialty track and experience level.