Back to School

 

I took a day off from school to go back to chainsaw school.  To use a saw on state land for the Finger Lakes Trail, it's necessary to get re-certified every three years.  It's a great two-day class that covers saw maintenance, safety and techniques for cutting.  The first day in the woods, everyone cuts a tree; those who haven't done it before learn the method on a stump. 

  After watching everyone else and hearing critique of them, the rookies drop a tree.  The obvious comment of this one is the sawyer should have followed the instructor when the tree started falling.  Walking behind it is a short-term method.

  The second day is spent learning techniques for cutting downed logs and branches.  The trees dropped the first day provide the material.  But those trees were in the woods not obstructing the FLT, and there was a report of "some white pines" that fell and blocked the trail nearby.  We went there and found this.  Nice trail.

 

 

  10 people with chainsaws can do quite a bit in an afternoon.  A couple of us went ahead and dealt with most of the limbs and smaller stuff so the rest of the group could get individual instruction for cutting logs.  I regret not refreshing and picking up new techniques, but felt satisfied we were able to get the bulk of the blockage out of the way.

  A second class the following weekend should have had no trouble opening the rest of what we didn't get to.  Not sure how places that experience storm damage like this and are not near a scheduled class get taken care of.  This would take a couple people many, many days to clear.