Woodland

[Paul73]

Yes this will work in principle. I have been cold called by people wanting to do it on my land, so there is demand.

 

If its low key you may be able to get away without a felling license. It always used to surprise me how little timber actually needed to be felled to get people through training when I did some instructing. If they are only going in felling once a quarter, they are unlikely to fell more than 5 cubic metres of actual timber (the threshold for needing a license). They can then run several cross cutting courses on the cut material. Depending on the tree size, they may be able to run climbing and aerial chainsaw courses too, which can cut amazingly little. 

 

The problem comes with your controlling it. You have to make sure they are not misbehaving and cutting too much and you have to make sure they cut the tree you want and clear them up how you want before they are allowed to come again. It will need your boots on the ground a few times at first and then once in a while to check in with them later. You will need to explain "I want this and not that". 

 

Course providers differ from small one man bands to local colleges. Anyone sent to instruct is probably going to be only half keen on tidy up as its not his site and its only borrowed by his employer who has really paid him to instruct not to tidy. 

 

Meeting with the instructor pre course and spraying marks on what he can fell is a good idea. 

 

But yes it will work, if you can give them favourable enough terms. If you basically want free tree surgery to your spec and want to meet them lots on site when they are not getting paid to instruct, its unlikely to be productive for them. There will have to be some meeting in the middle, so try to put together an attractive offer for them with clear mutual benefit. You need to know what your plan is and how they can achieve it. 

 

They would generally like lots of easy work in one place. The instructor has a group of about 4. He neds to watch them all and can't spread them out too far, equally he can't have them felling at the same time too close. What tends to get hammered is young trees as they are small and easy to fell -8 to 12 inches diameter sort of thing. If you have lots of these that are scruffy its great. However, beware the hobby woodland owner's common error of taking out all you good young growth "to make more space" simply because these are the easy trees to fell.

 

Would you kill off all the school age population in a community? Yes you will benefit from taking out the ones with bad form and you can thin a young thicket but its all too easy for an instructor to take everything small and a hobby owner to be delighted with the open space, while having killed off the next generation. Really you need to take out the some "bed blockers" to make space for the next generation while leaving the best potential veterans for the saproxylic bugs as well is hitting the ill formed and misplaced youth.

 

Felling to thin needs some skill sometimes not to ruin what you want to leave and it may not be ideal as training. I think those are the main caveats. It will go ok if you learn your subject and keep your boots on the ground but if you hand over responsibility it may go awry.

 

 

[Whoppa Choppa]

On 10/05/2024 at 22:51, spuddog0507 said:

There is a few things to think about here,,

1,, i would think you would need a felling licence in place first,, 

2,,i would make sure that who ever goes in to your woodland, fully understands the process of thinning and what you want done, as i could just see it virtually ending up ruined ??,

3,,several years ago i let a trainer who provided training for a local council on to one of our sites, it was explained very clearly what was required and TBH it was a right shambles of a job, saw logs cut at 3.5,3.6,3.7& 3.8, stumps left 2ft high, timber lead at all angles, this probably cost me 2 extra days when extracting the timber, on off tractor measuring logs cutting logs etc

4,, what is happening to your timber ? will it be left in nature piles or will it be extracted,

there is a bit to think about when letting some one who is young and keen with a chainsaw loose in your woodland, personally i would be there suppervising and labouring myself,,

 

I was reading somewhere on here that chainsaw training that exhibits these services, specifically high stumps and wastes produce are wholly inept at what they claim to provide. These so called training cos should be shut down.

[slack ma girdle]

You will need to think about the legal implications of letting someone loose in your woods if there is an accident. You will be probably liable .

I have 5 small woodlands that I use for crosscut & maintenance and felling upto 200mm, and never get to the 5m3 felling licence requirements when running the course.

Even with me running the course in woods that i manage,  there is always mess that needs tidying up, stumps lowering etc, but in the long term it is a benefit for the estates.

[spuddog0507]

14 hours ago, Whoppa Choppa said:

I was reading somewhere on here that chainsaw training that exhibits these services, specifically high stumps and wastes produce are wholly inept at what they claim to provide. These so called training cos should be shut down.

Yes maybe and guess what he wont be coming on any of out sites again  , but most training lads i know are all the same and they teach there candidates to cut as low as possible in relation to what you said, wasted product,, when i was extracting the timber it was saw logs on out side up against bolsters and then i was hand balling short lengths in to middle of trailer, i think i asked this trainer if the EEC had changed the laws on bending down, hence i got a funny look of him,,