Ok, so we're felling 'pecker poles' 8 - 10"...not your PNW monsters! This is an eight day intro to maintenance crosscutting and felling. The pic is the first day of their felling...keeping it to little trees to start, they'll get up to 15" by the end of the course.
The Bda Regiment is embodied during hurricanes for cleanup afterwards. They discovered during Fabian in '03 that their poulans and craftsmans and brute force did not cut it and they were lucky to get away without a fatality, one soldier ended up in the hospital after getting flung out of a windblow that he was cutting while standing in it...:what:
I did their first training course in '04, this is the third. They now have a good amount of kit..290's, 360's wedges, felling bars, come alongs...and camoflage chaps!
These guys are novices and one has never used a saw before, after five days they are now doing split level cuts, bore cuts, in addition to regular felling. Next week we do take down of hungups, hand tools and winches and I'll do a couple big trees (2 to 3x diameter of bar) for them to decide how to process it safely, and I'll see if I can find some recent blowdown to demo so they can get an idea of forces. A big emphasis is on risk assessment and site organization, situational awareness and SAFETY!
The site is the old US Naval Annex in Bermuda, right across the road from the 'Bermadoo' if any of you guys were ever stationed through here...all overgrown and derelict now, quite sad.
The Bda Regiment is embodied during hurricanes for cleanup afterwards. They discovered during Fabian in '03 that their poulans and craftsmans and brute force did not cut it and they were lucky to get away without a fatality, one soldier ended up in the hospital after getting flung out of a windblow that he was cutting while standing in it...:what:
I did their first training course in '04, this is the third. They now have a good amount of kit..290's, 360's wedges, felling bars, come alongs...and camoflage chaps!
These guys are novices and one has never used a saw before, after five days they are now doing split level cuts, bore cuts, in addition to regular felling. Next week we do take down of hungups, hand tools and winches and I'll do a couple big trees (2 to 3x diameter of bar) for them to decide how to process it safely, and I'll see if I can find some recent blowdown to demo so they can get an idea of forces. A big emphasis is on risk assessment and site organization, situational awareness and SAFETY!
The site is the old US Naval Annex in Bermuda, right across the road from the 'Bermadoo' if any of you guys were ever stationed through here...all overgrown and derelict now, quite sad.