OSHA investigates Idaho logger dying on Boise Nationwide Forest

An Idaho logger died on Tuesday, July 20, while performing tree harvesting work on the West Scriver Creek Stewardship Project in the Boise National Forest.

An Idaho logger died on Tuesday, July 20, even though executing tree harvesting operate on the West Scriver Creek Stewardship Venture in the Boise National Forest.

A federal place of work protection investigation is underway following the demise past 7 days of an Idaho logger who was operating at a timber harvesting website in the Boise Countrywide Forest north of Garden Valley.

Trevor Menter, 30, of Council, was killed on the career on July 20, Boise County Chief Deputy Coroner Mike Johnson verified to the Idaho Statesman. Menter was section of a logging crew performing on the West Scriver Creek Stewardship timber sale challenge inside of the Emmett Ranger District, in accordance to an open Occupational Protection and Health Administration on the web inspection report.

A log was getting pulled up a hill with a chain product identified as a choker when it hit a stump and spun all-around, striking Menter in the chest, Johnson explained. He died at the scene, Johnson said, and the cause was blunt-drive trauma.

“It’s a tragic incident. The tree snagged on a stump and swung about and strike him,” Johnson said by cell phone. “Logging is a weighty products-style operation, and mishaps come about. With all the protection, points continue to transpire.”

Menter was used by Council-primarily based contractor Tom Mahon Logging, Inc., which was completing perform on behalf of Tamarack Mill. The New Meadows-based mostly sawmill and lumber transportation corporation is the purchaser of the West Scriver timber, according to a U.S. Forest Company spokesperson.

Mahon Logging posted on its Fb webpage late past 7 days about Menter’s loss of life, sharing the company’s unhappiness around the loss of the hometown Adams County logger, and supplying its condolences to those people he leaves at the rear of.

“We know the career we really like is perilous,” the Fb article reads. “We can not commence to say how heartbroken we are. … Our views and prayers are with his family and buddies. You will by no means be overlooked Trevor Menter, relaxation in peace.”

OSHA, the federal agency that regulates workplace basic safety and overall health for the U.S. Division of Labor, has opened an investigation into Menter’s dying. Extra info about that inquiry is not offered although the investigation is ongoing, Jose Carnevali, acting regional spokesperson for the Section of Labor, told the Statesman by electronic mail.

Tom Mahon Logging has faced no OSHA enforcement actions or workplace investigations for at minimum the previous two decades, Carnevali reported.

Tamarack Mill, even so, has been cited for 20 safety and health and fitness violations, like 11 labeled critical, during five OSHA investigations courting to 2013. The hottest occurred in February, and Tamarack Mill has paid out additional than $165,000 in settlement fines in excess of the eight-year span.

A information remaining by a Statesman reporter with Tamarack Mill looking for comment from Lisbeth Edwards, the company’s timber sale accountant and office supervisor, was not returned Thursday.

An autopsy has been done, Johnson stated, but added information about Menter’s demise are not still accessible. OSHA fatality investigations can get up to 6 months, Carnevali stated.

Council has much less than 1,000 people and is the county seat for Adams County, which has a population of about 4,300. The rural county is located immediately south of parts where logging is popular, and the place most of the state’s fatalities associated to the field come about each and every year.

Logging consistently ranks as one particular of the most risky lines of operate in the United States, in accordance to the Facilities for Condition Command and Prevention. In 2019, the market accounted for the nation’s second-best rate of deadly accidents to employees, at about 69 fatalities for every 100,000 workers, a U.S. Bureau of Labor Data review demonstrates.

The review signifies that Idaho experienced 36 full operate-connected fatalities that identical 12 months, which is the most recent facts available. Of that number, 10 were connected to the classification that incorporates the agriculture, forestry, fishing and looking industries.

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Kevin Fixler is an investigative reporter with the Idaho Statesman. He previously coated community federal government, ecosystem and transportation at The Push Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, and the Summit Each day News in Breckenridge, Colorado. He retains degrees from the University of Denver and UC Berkeley’s Graduate Faculty of Journalism.
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