Low-Impact Forestry Training Series
The courses and workshops in the Low-Impact Forestry Training Series bring participants into the forested areas of the farm to gain a fresh perspective on what assets the woodlands contain.
Woodland Tools and Their Applications
Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday, May 19 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
This three-day course offers training for the selection, care, maintenance, and use of traditional forestry tools and equipment. The course is appropriate for anyone who has no or very little experience working with woodland tools and would like to learn the fundamentals necessary to perform woodland work. *Limit 4 participants
Cost: $100
Day 1: Introduction to hand tools highlighting forest axes, crosscut saws, scythes, and human-powered log-moving systems. Beginning at the workbench, we will cover foundational elements such as: learning axe design and edge geometry, choosing the right axe for specific uses, and sharpening systems to create a strong, working, and long-lasting cutting edge. With properly prepared tools, we will head to the woods to learn chopping, tree felling, and de-limbing techniques to take down a few carefully selected trees.
Day 2: Power chainsaws as a woodland tool. After a thorough safety training, we will use the chainsaw in the log yard to buck to length trees that are on the ground; then, we head to the woods to do the same work. We will explore the effectiveness of a chainsaw in removing non-native invasive species such as bush honeysuckle. Learned safe operating procedures will guide the felling of smaller diameter trees as part of a woodland stand improvement plan.
Day 3: Moving wood from the woodlot to the processing area using human power, draft animal power, and a tractor with a forestry winch to extract logs from the woods to the log yard. In the log yard, we will use hand tools to hew logs into usable building timbers, utilize an Alaskan chainsaw mill to convert logs into lumber, and use a small bandsaw mill to make boards.
Chainsaw Skills Training Course: Introduction to Chainsaw Safety and Directional Felling
This intensive two-day training is appropriate for any woodland owner or farm worker operating a power chainsaw. The course introduces basic chainsaw maintenance, saw chain sharpening, personal protective equipment, professional tree felling techniques, limbing, and bucking trees to length. *Limit 4 participants per workshop.
Cost: $75
Format: Each day, this training begins and ends in the shop and practice area where key discussion topics are covered; the practical portion of the course takes place in the woods.
Fall 2024 sessions to be announced soon!
Chainsaw Skills Training Course: Advanced Tree Felling
This intensive two-day training is appropriate for farm woodland owners and farm workers interested in advancing their power chainsaw use to include felling difficult trees, bucking stems to maximize value, extraction of logs with a farm tractor and forestry winch, and removal of storm damaged-and-downed trees. *Limit 4 participants per workshop.
Prerequisite: completion of the Introductory workshop or permission of the instructor.
Cost: $75
Format: Each day, this training begins and ends in the shop and practice area where key discussion topics are covered; the practical portion of the course takes place in the woods.
Fall 2024 sessions to be announced soon!
Logging Unplugged: Axes and Crosscut Saws as Woodland Management Tools
Inspiration for this course
I was grubbing bushes
and sprouts with an axe, setting
my own pace, but hard at it.
Art and Mart were felling
and logging up the trees
with a two-man crosscut saw.
After while Mart said, ‘Pascal,
I’ll rest you a little. Let me
run that axe, and you
get here on the saw with Art.’
So we traded, and good God!
I felt like I had a hold
of the tail of a stout big calf
and couldn’t turn loose. Even
what they called rest was work.
… … . And he
took down his scythe from its nail
and went to the hillside to mow
that big blackberry patch
before the day warmed up
and melted off the ice
from the catclaws of the briars.”
From “Epilogue: What Passes, What Remains” in The Art of Loading Brush, by Wendell Berry. Copyright 2017
This two-day course offers training for the selection, care, maintenance, and use of traditional forestry tools and equipment. Scythes equipped with brush blades will be used to clear brambles; axes and crosscut saws will be used to fell and limb trees. A single mule will provide the power needed to skid logs from the woods to the farm’s sawmill and bucked to length with a buck saw.
Cost: $75
This course is appropriate for anyone interested in learning how to work their woodlands with hand tools. Further, this course provides a good foundation for anyone excited about enrolling in our chainsaw courses but has little to no experience felling trees.
*Limit 4-6 participants. Youth at least 12 years old accompanied by an adult would be allowed to enroll. Please contact Rick Thomas for further inquiry
Fall 2024 dates to be announced soon!