The Yorkshire Agricultural Society, organisers of the Great Yorkshire Show, have contracted Rural Development Initiatives (through Yorwoods, the Yorkshire woodland initiative hosted by RDI) to manage the forestry arena at the Great Yorkshire Show since 2005. The Great Yorkshire Show is one of the UK’s premier agricultural shows, with an annual attendance of over 130,000 and a reputation for high quality exhibits, competitions and displays.
Yorwoods plan an extensive programme of activities in the forestry arena, ranging from horse logging to a modern forest harvester and from poleclimbing to an aerial rescue demonstration. A number of forestry contractors are involved in the displays which regularly draw large crowds and rank as one of the highlights of the show in exit polls conducted by the YAS. Planning takes place throughout the year, starting with an evaluation of the previous year’s show and ways to build on this. A major objective for the arena is to combine education with entertainment, thus promoting the forest industry and raise awareness of the benefits of forest management and the use of timber to the general public at the same time as providing a spectacle worthy of the shows national reputation.
With the combination of machinery and big crowds, safety is obviously of paramount importance, and thus demonstrators are carefully selected for their professional competence and attitude to safe working practices, risk assessments of individual activities and the overall arena undertaken, and rigorous management of the arena during the show. The Forestry Arena at the Great Yorkshire show is an opportunity to show the sector at its best to thousands of people and every opportunity is taken to present it as the safe, modern and sustainable industry that it is.
