The Einari Vidgrén Foun­da­tion rewar­ded meri­ted fore­stry pro­fes­sio­nals for the 20th time at the award cere­mony held in Rien­tola in Vie­remä on 3 June. The awards total­led EUR 180,000.   

The Einari Award, the Einari Vidgrén Foundation’s key recog­ni­tion, was gran­ted to forest mac­hine cont­rac­tor Simo Kuit­ti­nen. Through Koneu­ra­kointi S. Kuit­ti­nen Oy, a com­pany he foun­ded, Kuit­ti­nen has exten­sive prac­tical exper­tise in various busi­ness areas, ran­ging from the use and ser­vicing of mac­hi­nes to admi­ni­stra­tive work. In associa­tion acti­vi­ties, Kuit­ti­nen has acted as the chair­man of the Fede­ra­tion of Mac­hine Ent­repre­neurs and is an hono­rary mem­ber of the Associa­tion. 

Simo Kuit­ti­nen and his com­pany have influenced the deve­lop­ment of the entire Fin­nish tim­ber har­ves­ting industry in many ways. Kuit­ti­nen has, among other things, cont­ri­bu­ted to the crea­tion of the regio­nal cont­rac­ting model. When it comes to domes­tic log­ging, Kuit­ti­nen has pas­sio­na­tely deve­lo­ped har­ves­ting on islands.  
 
Kuit­ti­nen grew up wor­king in the forest after hel­ping his fat­her already as a 12-year-old boy. From the age of 15, he star­ted ope­ra­ting a forest mac­hine full-time, and his career in fore­stry began in 1974 only at the age of 18. The Einari Vidgrén Foun­da­tion awards Simo Kuit­ti­nen for over 50 years of ent­repre­neurs­hip in forest work. 

In addi­tion to the Einari Award, awards were given in five dif­fe­rent cate­go­ries:  
life­time achie­ve­ment awards, special recog­ni­tion awards, Glo­bal CTL, ope­ra­tor awards, and stu­dent scho­lars­hips.  

Life­time achie­ve­ment awards    

Life­time achie­ve­ment awards were given to two long-term fore­stry pro­fes­sio­nals.  
 
Jorma Pii­lola from Par­kano star­ted as a trac­tor cont­rac­tor and shif­ted to full-time forest mac­hine cont­rac­ting in 1974. Ent­repre­neurs­hip that has con­ti­nued unin­ter­rup­ted for more than 50 years still con­ti­nues at the age of 76. Piilola’s work has always been of a high qua­lity, which has been recog­ni­sed for the last four years in succes­sion with the Met­sä­hal­li­tus qua­lity award. During his long ent­repre­neu­rial career, Pii­lola has also gui­ded and trai­ned seve­ral people who have ente­red the forest mac­hine industry, and many who lear­ned from him are still wor­king in the sec­tor. 

Jussi Kum­pula has had a uniquely long career in Met­sä­hal­li­tus since the late 1980s. Kum­pula has success­fully led Met­sä­hal­li­tus’ ope­ra­tions and wood deli­ve­ries in chal­len­ging con­di­tions since 2011. He has been able to take bio­di­ver­sity and envi­ron­men­tal chal­len­ges into account in his work as part of the deve­lop­ment of tim­ber har­ves­ting and forest mana­ge­ment. In his role, Kum­pula has succee­ded in acting in good spi­rit with various actors in the forest sec­tor. 

 “The two long careers have seen many chan­ges and uphea­vals in the industry. Both of the awar­dees have wor­ked meri­to­riously in a chal­len­ging ope­ra­ting envi­ron­ment, and we wan­ted to show our apprecia­tion for their high-qua­lity work,” says Juha Vidgren.   

Special recog­ni­tion awards  

The foun­da­tion issues annual special recog­ni­tion awards to people invol­ved in mec­ha­ni­sed har­ves­ting research and deve­lop­ment, industry educa­tion deve­lop­ment, and those who have inc­rea­sed awa­re­ness of and recog­ni­tion for the industry. This year’s awards were given to nine associa­tions and indi­vi­duals.    

“We wan­ted to reward associa­tions and people that raise awa­re­ness of the forest industry and rural pro­fes­sions among children and young people. We also wan­ted to high­light the role of women as fore­stry specia­lists,” says Juha Vidgren. 

Glo­bal CTL  

For pro­mo­ting the inter­na­tio­nal Cut-To-Length met­hod, the Foun­da­tion gave three awards: 
Finn­har­vest, Kuo­pio 
Snowske Hig­her Voca­tio­nal School of Fore­stry, Ukraina 
Uni­ver­sity of Idaho 
 
“The Foun­da­tion wan­ted to reward those who work to pro­mote the CTL met­hod in various ways. Finn­har­vest has been able to demon­strate the sca­la­bi­lity of the CTL met­hod glo­bally in Swe­dish, Ger­man and US mar­ket as well as its financial pro­fi­ta­bi­lity and efficiency. It’s also a plea­sure to see that CTL trai­ning has inc­rea­sed across the world, and the bene­fits of the met­hod are lear­ned already at a young age. In par­ticu­lar, I would raise the need of the Ukrai­nian Forest Mac­hi­nery School to invest in trai­ning in a par­ticu­larly chal­len­ging situa­tion,” says Juha Vidgren. 

Einari Ope­ra­tor’s Awards 

The award cri­te­ria for ope­ra­tor awards include cus­to­mer-dri­ven, high-qua­lity work, an unre­len­ting atti­tude when it comes to the qua­lity of work, and good coo­pe­ra­tion and com­mu­nica­tion with forest owners and other sta­ke­hol­ders. Einari had a clear idea for the award cri­te­ria: those ope­ra­tors whose qua­lity of work is high and have a good atti­tude with good cus­to­mer ser­vice skills have ear­ned their awards. This year, the Einari Vidgrén Foun­da­tion gave 38 Einari Operator’s awards for high-qua­lity work.  

Einari Scho­lars­hips  

Stu­dent scho­lars­hips are awar­ded to forest industry stu­dents who have per­for­med well in their stu­dies. The Foun­da­tion gave stu­dent scho­lars­hips to 39 forest industry stu­dents. The scho­lars­hips were given to the stu­dents at the end of the term.  

Press release and all awards https://www.evsaatio.fi/uutiset/bwdc6s8auidxcmb01aazcf7j15vxjq