Commercial logging is a huge industry in the United States, but it is also one of the most dangerous industries in the world, with a higher than average casualty rate every year. The reason that it is dangerous is because it deals with very heavy machinery and of course, giant trees. A great deal of logging is also done in various difficult areas with rough terrain that is little used, and so is not easily accessible. Also, there is a great deal of work that must be done before a tree can become a useable piece of lumber. It needs to be stripped of its limbs—a process called delimbing which would be done in a machine called a delimber. It also needs to be processed and stripped of its bark. The pulp also needs to be removed before it can be planked and loaded. Sometimes, the whole process can happen right at the spot where the tree is felled. But sometimes, it needs to be done at the roadside. Either way, different machines are necessary, and depending on where the work is done, those machines need to have wheels or tracks.

Heavy forestry equipment must be the highest quality possible. If the machinery is constructed poorly, or it can’t handle the work load, and it breaks down, there could be many dire consequences. The first and least is that there will be critical hours lost, and critical money lost with those hours. Of course, there are others. If the heavy forestry equipment malfunctions at the wrong time, a person could be seriously injured or killed. Also, it will cost more money and require more people to move or fix the broken down equipment.