All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Forestry and logging safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for forestry and logging contractors doing hand and mechanical falling, skidding and forwarding, processing and loading, log hauling, bush road building, silviculture and land clearing, wherever in Canada the block is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: the falling plan and danger tree assessment, manual falling, lodged trees, windfall and spring poles, chainsaws, mechanical harvesting and the machine’s danger zone, steep slopes and tethered equipment, skidding, landings and loading, log hauling, radio-controlled forest roads, road building, planting and brushing, power lines, fire season and hot work in the bush, wildlife, weather, remote camps and evacuation, working alone and fatigue. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s forestry rules, faller training and certification, falling distances, danger trees, machine protective structures, chainsaw PPE and who sets fire restrictions. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for forestry crews, manual falling shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's forestry rules, faller training, falling distances and fire season

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready plans and forms: the falling plan and danger tree assessment shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, fallers, machine operators, log truck drivers, road crews, planters and mechanics, and how we work under the licensee’s rules.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by phase and activity, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the block and task hazard assessment done before work on every block.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for the bush: the licensee’s rules, the falling plan, manual falling, lodged trees and windfall, chainsaws, mechanical harvesting, steep slopes and tethering, skidding, landings and loading, log hauling, radio roads, road building, silviculture, power lines, fire, wildlife, weather, remote work and evacuation, working alone and fatigue.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for falling a tree by hand, a lodged tree, a danger tree, a spring pole or windfall, a tethered machine on a steep slope, loading and wrapping a log truck, driving a radio-controlled road and evacuating an injured worker from a remote block.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for the bush (two tree lengths or more from a falling tree, never work under a lodged tree, call your kilometres on radio roads, nobody inside a machine’s danger zone), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Chainsaw leg protection, hard hats, eye, face and hearing protection, caulk boots and high-visibility apparel, checked every day.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Chainsaws, feller bunchers, harvesters, skidders, forwarders, processors and loaders and their protective structures, tether systems, log trucks and wrappers, and radios.

8. Training and communication

Faller training and certification where the law requires it, machine operators, log truck drivers, first aid for remote sites, and orientation on every block.

9. Inspections

Block inspections, machines checked before each shift, chainsaws and faller PPE checked daily, and log truck loads and wrappers checked before every trip.

10. Investigations and reporting

Struck-by trees and limbs, chainsaw cuts, machine rollovers, log truck incidents, fires and near misses reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

A worker struck by a tree, a chainsaw cut, a rollover, a wildfire, a wildlife encounter, and a tested evacuation plan on every block.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Falling plans, danger tree assessments, machine inspections, load checks and evacuation plans, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law and its forestry parts, the forest safety associations’ standards as guidance unless adopted, fire law, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Working for licensees and land owners, subcontracted fallers and haulers, camps, and buying machines and saws.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, the forestry rules, faller training and certification, falling distances, danger trees, machine protective structures, chainsaw PPE, who sets fire restrictions, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the block and task hazard assessment, falling plan and danger tree assessment, chainsaw and faller PPE check, forestry machine inspection, log truck load and wrapper check and remote emergency and evacuation plan.

Written for the work, not just the province

Logging kills by falling trees, lodged trees and snags, machines on steep ground and log trucks on narrow roads, often hours from a hospital. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Every falling area gets a written plan and a danger tree assessment, and every block has a tested evacuation plan before work starts.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the block is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Forestry and logging contractors: hand and mechanical falling, skidding, forwarding, processing and loading, log hauling, bush road building, silviculture and land clearing. Sawmills are out of scope, and tree care in towns has its own manual.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your work and the provinces you work in before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for forestry and logging contractors and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the forestry, faller certification, falling distance, danger tree, machine protection and fire season rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 29 October 2026.