The Straight Cut: Kelly Logging

A thick blanket of mist still clung to the hills when we arrived in Havelock, Marlborough. Among the towering trees and muddy tracks, we met Nigel Kelly, owner and fifth-generation logger of Kelly Logging, a family-run operation with over 120 years of history in forestry.

Nigel took over the business from his father, and today his son works alongside him - three generations sharing one hillside and a deep knowledge of the trees they harvest. “Kelly Logging is a company that’s been around a long time. I’m a fifth-generation logger, and my son is in the business now too,” Nigel said. “It’s always been a family aff air.”

Despite the scale of the operation, Kelly Logging remains small and tight-knit. They work with a compact management team that includes a harvest manager, an in-house trainer, and a foreman on each job. Nigel himself is hands-on, out on-site every day. The company focuses almost exclusively on harvesting, though it’s dabbled in other areas over the years. “Harvesting is what we know, what we’re good at,” Nigel said.

Based mainly in Marlborough, with occasional work in Nelson, Kelly Logging manages nearly the entire forestry process - from the harvest plan and road-building, to felling, cutting logs to spec, and transporting them to the customer. “It’s a total supply chain,” Nigel said. “On some jobs, we even own the trees and the land.”

Safety and training are critical parts of the Kelly Logging ethos. “You can have all the flash gear in the world, but if your people don’t know how to use it properly, it doesn’t mean anything,” Nigel said. Their in-house trainer ensures staff are skilled, knowledgeable, and confident. It’s a foundation that supports both safety and productivity.

Innovation has also been a constant driver. “We’re a pretty proactive company,” he said. “We’ve been part of developing forestry equipment in New Zealand for the past 20 years.” One of the biggest. shifts in that time has been the move to tethered harvesting- a mechanised approach that’s replacing traditional cable yarding on steep slopes. “In the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of mechanisation change into tethered equipment,” Nigel said. “Excavators, falling machines, shovel machines working on slopes are going away from traditional cable yarding. It started here in New Zealand, and I was part of that myself.”

The change was necessary, Nigel explained. “Cable harvesting has a depleting workforce. Staffi ng’s always difficult. And on steep slopes, the risk of hurting workers is almost eliminated by using tethered equipment.” The benefits go beyond efficiency. “A side benefit,” he added, “is that at times it’s more productive, so it’s cheaper harvesting. The value out of the forest is the kit.”

In 2023, Kelly Logging brought in a Pronar shredder to help tackle a problem facing many forestry operators: slash. “It’s inevitable that if we want to maintain a sustainable company, we need to think better about how we’re managing the environment. We have a massive slash problem daily. What do we do with that product? Where do we put it? How do we handle it when we leave the site?” Nigel said. The shredder doesn’t chip the wood; it tears it into fibrous material, which can then be reused. The shredded fibre creates a mat-like surface that trucks and excavators can work on without churning up the earth. “We didn’t really know what we were going to do with it at the start,” Nigel told us. “Now we use it to improve roads in muddy areas. It’s better for morale too.”

That includes careful management of waterways. The company works closely with ecologists from forest management companies like M & R Forestland Management, installing silt traps and culvert protections to prevent sediment runoff during heavy rains. “We’ve got to leave the site in a way that’s safe and sustainable,” Nigel said. “When we leave, all the trees are harvested, the roads have water controls, culvert heads are cleaned out and slash is pulled back.

We make sure there’s no blockages that’ll cause environmental risk once we vacate.”

For Kelly Logging, sustainability doesn’t stop with the environment. It’s about the future of the industry, too. “We’ve got to pass on the right knowledge to the next generation. Some of us older loggers are exiting the industry, and there’s a new workforce coming in with a different outlook. Our job is to make sure they’re well set up.”

Technology continues to play a key role. Kelly Logging uses drones to monitor post-harvest sites, checking gullies and waterways for compliance and clean-up. And with onboard optimisation software in their processors, they can maximise value from every tree. “We put in the cut card the types of logs you’re going to cut and the machine will optimise the stem to cut the highest value out of that log,” he said. “We cut to achieve the highest value for the forest owner. It’s all about delivering the best return.”

For Nigel, the pride in his team is evident. “We’ve got a great workforce; highly skilled, motivated, just a good bunch of guys,” he said. “I’m super proud of what we do.”

He hopes the industry continues to shift its public image, too. “It’s easy to find negatives. But we need to show the positives- that we’re doing the right thing, that we care, that this is a good job and a good industry to be part of.”

Out in the open air, with beautiful views of the valley below, it’s easy to see the appeal. “We’re not sitting behind desks. We’re out here in the forest, doing a good job,” Nigel said. “It’s a great industry, and we’ve just got to keep getting better at it.”