§ 570.54 Forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention occupations, timber tract occupations, forestry service occupations, logging occupations, and occupations in the operation of any sawmill, lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage stock mill (Order 4).

(a) Finding and declarations of fact. All occupations in forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention, in timber tracts, in forestry services, logging, and the operation of any sawmill, lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage stock mill are particularly hazardous for the employment of minors between 16 and 18 years of age, except the following when not prohibited by any other section of this subpart:

(1) Work in offices or in repair or maintenance shops.

(2) Work in the construction, operation, repair, or maintenance of living and administrative quarters, including logging camps and fire fighting base camps.

(3) Work in the repair or maintenance of roads, railroads or flumes and work in construction and maintenance of telephone lines, but only if the minors are not engaged in the operation of power-driven machinery, the handling or use of explosives, the felling or bucking of timber, the collecting or transporting of logs, or work on trestles.

(4) The following tasks in forest fire prevention provided none of these tasks may be performed in conjunction with or in support of efforts to extinguish a forest fire: the clearing of fire trails or roads; the construction, maintenance, and patrolling of fire lines; the piling and burning of slash; the maintaining of fire fighting equipment; and acting as a fire lookout or fire patrolman.

(5) Work related to forest marketing and forest economics when performed away from the forest.

(6) Work in the feeding or care of animals.

(7) Peeling of fence posts, pulpwood, chemical wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, or similar products, when not done in conjunction with and at the same time and place as other logging occupations declared hazardous by this section.

(8) The following additional exceptions apply to the operation of a permanent sawmill or the operation of any lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage stock mill, but not to a portable sawmill. In addition, the following exceptions do not apply to work which entails entering the sawmill building, except for those minors whose employment meets the requirements of the limited exemptions discussed in §§ 570.34(m) and 570.54(c):

(i) Straightening, marking, or tallying lumber on the dry chain or the dry drop sorter.

(ii) Pulling lumber from the dry chain, except minors under 16 years of age may not pull lumber from the dry chain as such youth are prohibited from operating or tending power-driven machinery by § 570.33(e) of this part.

(iii) Clean-up in the lumberyard.

(iv) Piling, handling, or shipping of cooperage stock in yards or storage sheds other than operating or assisting in the operation of power-driven equipment; except minors under 16 years of age may not perform shipping duties as they are prohibited from employment in occupations in connection with the transportation of property by rail, highway, air, water, pipeline, or other means by § 570.33(n)(1) of this part.

(v) Clerical work in yards or shipping sheds, such as done by ordermen, tally-men, and shipping clerks.

(vi) Clean-up work outside shake and shingle mills, except when the mill is in operation.

(vii) Splitting shakes manually from precut and split blocks with a froe and mallet, except inside the mill building or cover.

(viii) Packing shakes into bundles when done in conjunction with splitting shakes manually with a froe and mallet, except inside the mill building or cover.

(ix) Manual loading of bundles of shingles or shakes into trucks or railroad cars, provided that the employer has on file a statement from a licensed doctor of medicine or osteopathy certifying the minor capable of performing this work without injury to himself, except minors under 16 years of age may not load bundles of shingles or shakes into trucks or railroad cars as they are prohibited from loading and unloading goods or property onto or from motor vehicles, railroad cars, or conveyors by § 570.33(k) of this part.

(b) Definitions. As used in this section:

All occupations in forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention shall include the controlling and extinguishing of fires, the wetting down of areas or extinguishing of spot fires, and the patrolling of burned areas to assure the fire has been extinguished. The term shall also include the following tasks when performed in conjunction with, or in support of, efforts to extinguish a forest fire: the piling and burning of slash; the clearing of fire trails or roads; the construction, maintenance, and patrolling of fire lines; acting as a fire lookout or fire patrolman; and the maintaining of fire fighting equipment. The prohibition concerning the employment of youth in forest fire fighting and fire prevention applies to all forest and timber tract locations, logging operations, and sawmill operations, including all buildings located within such areas.

All occupations in forestry services shall mean all work involved in the support of timber production, wood technology, forestry economics and marketing, and forest protection. The term includes such services as timber cruising, surveying, or logging-engineering parties; estimating timber; timber valuation; forest pest control; forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention as defined in this section; and reforestation. The term shall not include work in forest nurseries, establishments primarily engaged in growing trees for purposes of reforestation. The term shall not include the gathering of forest products such as balsam needles, ginseng, huckleberry greens, maple sap, moss, Spanish moss, sphagnum moss, teaberries, and tree seeds; the distillation of gum, turpentine, and rosin if carried on at the gum farm; and the extraction of pine gum.

All occupations in logging shall mean all work performed in connection with the felling of timber; the bucking or converting of timber into logs, poles, piles, ties, bolts, pulpwood, chemical wood, excelsior wood, cordwood, fence posts, or similar products; the collecting, skidding, yarding, loading, transporting and unloading of such products in connection with logging; the constructing, repairing and maintaining of roads, railroads, flumes, or camps used in connection with logging; the moving, installing, rigging, and maintenance of machinery or equipment used in logging; and other work performed in connection with logging.

All occupations in the operation of any sawmill, lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage-stock mill shall mean all work performed in or about any such mill in connection with storing of logs and bolts; converting logs or bolts into sawn lumber, lathers, shingles, or cooperage stock; storing drying, and shipping lumber, laths, shingles, cooperage stock, or other products of such mills; and other work performed in connection with the operation of any sawmill, lath mill, shingle mill, or cooperage-stock mill. The term shall not include work performed in the planing-mill department or other remanufacturing departments of any sawmill or remanufacturing plant not a part of a sawmill.

All occupations in timber tracts means all work performed in or about establishments that cultivate, manage or sell standing timber. The term includes work performed in timber culture, timber tracts, timber-stand improvement, and forest fire fighting and fire prevention. It includes work on tree farms, except those tree farm establishments that meet the definition of agriculture contained in 29 U.S.C. 203(f).

Inside or outside places of business shall mean the actual physical location of the establishment employing the youth, including the buildings and surrounding land necessary to the business operations of that establishment.

Operate or assist in the operation of power-driven woodworking machines includes operating such machines, including supervising or controlling the operation of such machines, feeding material into such machines, helping the operator feed material into such machines, unloading materials from such machines, and helping the operator unload materials from such machines. The term also includes the occupations of setting-up, adjusting, repairing, oiling, or cleaning such machines.

Places of business where machinery is used to process wood products shall mean such permanent workplaces as sawmills, lath mills, shingle mills, cooperage stock mills, furniture and cabinet making shops, gazebo and shed making shops, toy manufacturing shops, and pallet shops. The term shall not include construction sites, portable sawmills, areas where logging is being performed, or mining operations.

Portable sawmill shall mean a sawmilling operation where no office or repair or maintenance shop is ordinarily maintained, and any lumberyard operated in conjunction with the sawmill is used only for the temporary storage of green lumber.

Power-driven woodworking machines shall mean all fixed or portable machines or tools driven by power and used or designed for cutting, shaping, forming, surfacing, nailing, stapling, wire stitching, fastening or otherwise assembling, pressing or printing wood, veneer, trees, logs, or lumber.

Remanufacturing department shall mean those departments of a sawmill where lumber products such as boxes, lawn furniture, and the like are remanufactured from previously cut lumber. The kind of work performed in such departments is similar to that done in planing mill departments in that rough lumber is surfaced or made into other finished products. The term is not intended to denote those operations in sawmills where rough lumber is cut to dimensions.

Supervised by an adult relative or is supervised by an adult member of the same religious sect or division as the youth, as a term, has several components. Supervised refers to the requirement that the youth's on-the-job activities be directed, monitored, and controlled by certain named adults. Such supervision must be close, direct, constant and uninterrupted. An adult shall mean an individual who is at least eighteen years of age. A relative shall mean the parent (or someone standing in place of a parent), grandparent, sibling, uncle, or aunt of the young worker. A member of the same religious sect or division as the youth refers to an individual who professes membership in the same religious sect or division to which the youth professes membership.

(c) Exemptions.

(1) The provisions contained in paragraph (a)(8) of this section that prohibit youth between 16 and 18 years of age from performing any work that entails entering the sawmill building do not apply to the employment of a youth who is at least 14 years of age and less than 18 years of age and who by statute or judicial order is exempt from compulsory school attendance beyond the eighth grade, if:

(i) The youth is supervised by an adult relative or by an adult member of the same religious sect or division as the youth;

(ii) The youth does not operate or assist in the operation of power-driven woodworking machines;

(iii) The youth is protected from wood particles or other flying debris within the workplace by a barrier appropriate to the potential hazard of such wood particles or flying debris or by maintaining a sufficient distance from machinery in operation; and

(iv) The youth is required to use, and uses, personal protective equipment to prevent exposure to excessive levels of noise and saw dust.

(2) Compliance with the provisions of paragraphs (c)(1)(iii) and (iv) of this section will be accomplished when the employer is in compliance with the requirements of the applicable governing standards issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or, in those areas where OSHA has authorized the state to operate its own Occupational Safety and Health Plan, the applicable standards issued by the Office charged with administering the State Occupational Safety and Health Plan.

[75 FR 28453, May 20, 2010]