Cara Johnstone: Female operator on Ponsse and changing forestry

WHAT do you want to do for a living? It’s a question we’re all asked growing up, but for most of her life Cara Johnstone never had an answer. That was until a chance encounter with a forwarder in the hills around Oban set her on the path to a most unexpected career.

Hailing from Edinburgh, the daughter of a lawyer and a midwife, with no family connections to forestry, Cara could be fairly described as an unlikely candidate to be found driving a 20-tonne Ponsse Elephant King across the hills of Argyll. But the moment she saw one at work, she knew that was what she wanted to do.

“I was quite confused when I was younger and didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to do with my life,” the 26-year-old said. “I had family in Oban so would go there on holiday. One day I saw one of these machines working on the hill and thought, ‘What in tarnation is that?’

Cara’s eyes were opened to timber harvesting when she saw a machine like this on a hillside like this. Now she’s doing the job. (Image: FJ)

“I kept asking people about it and began seeking out forestry contractors. I would find out where they were, go to them and say, ‘I will drive one of these one day’. A lot of people laughed at me and told me no. They said it wasn’t something girls could do. I got told no a lot, which I’m glad about, because whenever someone tells me no it just makes me more determined. It became my purpose. I thought, ‘if people think women can’t do this, it’s up to me to prove they can’.”

This determination eventually saw her storming into the Lochgilphead office of contractor Colin Brolly. A little taken aback to find a slight, 21-year-old woman imploring him to give her a chance on the machines, he suggested she go through the conventional route of attending college and getting her tickets. But she dismissed that, telling him: “It’s not the right way to do it. You and I both know it.”

Cara said: “He was shocked. I remember feeling really nervous and embarrassed because I knew what I was doing wasn’t normal. I just kept pushing. He asked if I had any experience of machinery. I’d done a bit of farm work and could drive tractors, so I told him that. I think he really wasn’t sure of me, thinking I was just a mad dreamer excited about the machinery, but he gave me his number and asked me to call him when I had my provisional.”

Seizing the opportunity, Cara paid to acquire her provisional licence that very day and within weeks was on site, behind the controls of an Elephant King.

Having driven many different forwarders, Cara’s ambition is to get behind the controls of a Ponsse Mammoth and perhaps progress to harvesters. (Image: FJ)

She said: “I remember turning up and every guy from the workshop was there. I think they were just surprised to see a girl. But I got to play around with the machine, get used to the crane, have a look around the site and see if it was really something I could envisage myself doing.

“For somebody who’s never sat on a forwarder before it was a pretty incredible experience. It was a nice to play around with it and think to myself that if I got good I’d be using it every day.

“I did a lot of my training with Colin and his guys, hauling loads. There’s no tougher place to learn than Scotland, but it makes for really good operators. Eventually I was ready to sit my test.”

During this time, Cara was working as a home delivery driver for Tesco, but once she had her operator’s licence she told Colin he would need to prepare a machine for her because she was handing her notice in. Within a week he had one waiting on site.

In the years since, Cara has worked for a variety of contractors across Scotland and a few in France, thinning in the ‘seriously snowy’ Auvergne region and clearfelling in the South, in baking heat. She’s driven forwarders from Ponsse, John Deere and Komatsu – finding they all have their pros and cons – and pulled an awful lot of timber out of the woods.

Forestry Journal met up with her at a site near Strachur in Argyll, where she was back driving an Elephant King for Colin Brolly Forestry across steep, mist-shrouded terrain and in a mood to reflect on all she’s learned on her journey so far.

In her teens, Cara worked on a farm where she learned to drive tractors, drawn by their power. “It was important to me to be in a position of power, where I felt equal to men,” she said. “When I fed the cows I would make sure it was at the busiest time so everyone in the road would see a girl driving a tractor.” (Image: FJ)

“It’s a simple job when you think about it,” she said. “The wood is over there, you’ve got to go get it and bring it back here. But there are all these problems in the way that make it very, very tough. It requires serious skill. It might look like fun – and it can be, the first few times – but you soon discover how many hazards there are, all the problems you can face during the day. I’ve learned more working alone in the forest than anywhere else.

“This is my second week on this site. When I came in the harvester was already gone, so I’m lone working at the moment. There’s a lot of steep sections here, which keeps you on your toes. You’ve really got to make a plan and watch what you’re doing.

READ MORE: Cara Johnstone: Female forestry operator on her journey

“Soft ground and water present a lot of issues in Argyll. I don’t mind steep and I don’t mind sliding. What I don’t like is when you’ve got an edge you can slide off. There are some huge drops here where if you went over you’d roll right down. I don’t like stuff like that. I’ve never tipped or rolled a machine, but I’m very aware of the potential to do it.”

Lone working is fairly common for Cara and she says she doesn’t mind it. She enjoys the peace and serenity of the forest, the chance to be alone with her own thoughts, and excursions through woods where no-one has walked for 40 years.

Hazards abound on a site like this with steep drops and low visibility, so careful planning is paramount (Image: FJ)

She may be someone who loves big machines, but she also loves nature and sees that as an important, perhaps undervalued quality to have in a good operator.

“This kind of work can be very harmful to the environment, but when you’ve got the right operators doing it, the damage done will be much less. And I would say I’m quite a gentle person on the ground,” she said.

“It is important to me. I don’t see how forestry can continue if we maintain the same level of greed, seeing trees only as money and robbing everything off the site. I just don’t see that working in the future. It’s an old mindset.”

There are some other attitudes to forestry – both within and without – Cara would also like to see change, not least the idea that hers is no job for a lady.

She said: “I know other women exist who do this, but the ones I’ve heard of already had relatives or partners in the industry. That makes it a bit different.

“I did not have any contacts in forestry. I think I’m a good example of someone who had an idea to do something and went and did it. There is an attitude in forestry that it’s too tough for most people and only a few can do it. Generally, the people getting drafted in are the nephews of the boss, sons of the machine operators, etc. They’re the ones getting the opportunity, when there are lots of people out there with the drive and personality traits to do the job who are never given the chance. If they went looking for it, they’d get shot down.

Taking care on the job is important not only for her own safety but to respect the site. Cara prefers a gentle approach. (Image: FJ)

“The attitude in the industry was always difficult for me. It didn’t scare me away, but I think it needs to be so different if we want to bring young people in. And we need to offer them a package that makes them want to stay.

“I would like to see more support for contractors, because the training and investment in new operators comes out of their pockets. And if things are really tight for contractors, they’re even tighter for subcontractors. My advice to anyone who wants to do the job would be to find a boss or company that will look after you. Push, push, push if you want to do it. But change needs to happen.”

At what is still an early stage of her career, Cara has a few personal goals she would like to achieve – driving a Ponsse Mammoth for one – but generally she’s uncertain what the future holds for her.

“I would love to progress, but I’m not sure to where,” she said. “For a while I was interested in becoming a salesperson for machinery, because I love machines. I did some digging and was told by several people I was just an operator. I do fancy harvesting, but if I wanted to learn I’d be put right back to a beginner’s position with a wage to match.

“I think I’d like to be an advocate for the industry, because it needs one. You don’t see many people going out and trying to change things. It’s hard to imagine, because every route I’ve tried so far has led to me being told ‘no, stay in your lane’.

“I am conflicted. But I love the industry and I want to make it better. I want to bring more young people in. A lot of the boys who have the skills will be away by the time we finally bring young people in to learn from them. It’s a really dire situation right now. I don’t want to be down on forestry, because it’s so great and so character building, but it really does need work.

What do Cara’s friends and family think of her work? “They don’t really get it. I’d love for more of the general public to see what we do and understand it. It’s a job that hardly anybody sees, but everybody benefits from in some way.” (Image: FJ)

“I definitely think it is possible to change attitudes. Many people have told me it’s not, but I think if forestry wants younger people to come in, part of a new generation that’s been taught completely differently from them, attitudes will have to change. It’s a new generation with their own demands and if you want people filling the seats and getting behind the saws, those demands will have to be heard.”