You know it’s going to be an interesting day in theforest when the forest gate is over the road from Gisborne’s Eastwood Hill Arboretum – basically a zoo, but for trees – and the first road you drive up is Mad Mutt Rd.The hills get steadily steeper and bigger, and we finally park up at the tethered mulcher operation which is in some rather confronting terrain.
Regular operator Cory Malcolm is an interesting character. The son of a blacksmith who travelled to a lot of the back blocks locations around Gisborne when horses were the main mode of transport, he was inspired to work in rural areas and the next best option for him was logging crews, culminating in years spent on a tether, harvesting trees.
“I got a bit fed up with the carnage I was creating, as I saw it, so when this job was advertised, I thought ‘yeah, I’m up for that’, and honestly it’s the best move,” he says. “You get to improve your environment every day, and at the end of the day you can look back on your work, see harmless woodchips for miles, and say ‘yeah, I made a difference’.”
Also on the site with us today is Tigercat’s Aaron Gregan who says this L870D mulcher is one of a kind globally. He says this base usually runs a disc saw, so is well suited to the role, providing plenty of juice on the business end, and a short and sturdy boom.
Last but not least is Tigercat dealership CablePrice’s representative, Tyler Allen. Tyler enjoys getting into the back country and meeting the cool characters in both logging and farming when delivering new machines to CablePrice’s customers.
We have been wanting to look at this Tigercat mulcher at Speirs Logging for ages. The Tigercat model 4161-15 mulcher head is running on a 370HP 36 tonne leveller. The Tigercat FPT (Fiat Powertrain Technologies) engine is specifically designed to deliver high power density, quick load response and excellent fuel economy for heavy-duty forestry applications.
Company founded on family farm
Blake and Caree Speirs are the owners of Speirs Logging Ltd, based in Gisborne. Blake’s father, Murray Speirs, founded the company in Waitārere Beach on the lower North Island, near Levin, around 1998. The business began as a small family operation focused on harvesting and processing trees from the family farm. In its early years, Speirs Logging worked primarily on woodlots, servicing various sites across the lower North Island.
As demand grew, the company expanded its operations to include two hauler crews and one ground-based crew, servicing the Wellington and Wairarapa regions. In 2010, a significant transition occurred when one crew was relocated to Gisborne. At that point, Blake and his wife Caree took ownership of the company, marking the beginning of a new chapter for Speirs Logging.
For the first five years in Gisborne, the company operated as a swing yarder crew before shifting to a road line configuration to better meet the needs of its clients and the terrain. Today, Speirs Logging operates...
