Legal limitations of CS30+31

[Big J]

Just a quick question regarding legality and the CS30+31 qualification.

 

I work primarily in forestry on the estate I live on, and have three months of hardwood thinning under my belt since doing my chainsaw cert earlier in the year.

 

We have plenty more thinning to do later in the year, though some of it may be larger than before.

 

Previously most of the trees have been in the 8-12 inch range (ash, beech, sycamore and oak) with some up to 18 inches.

 

I am obviously covered by my PL insurance, but what are the legal implications for felling trees in excess of 15 inches?

 

As best I understand it, the certification of CS30+31 does not limit you to 380mm, but there are issues is something goes wrong and you are found to have been felling larger than that. I could be completely wrong though.

 

The reason I ask is that I need to know whether I need to do the next cert up (CS38 is it?) in order to maximise my work over autumn and winter.

 

Thankyou in advance for any help.

 

Jonathan

[liamjordan]

CS38 is Tree Climbing and Aerial Rescue, the next felling ticket is CS32 which is now, if i am correct any tree size, all the way up to the hugeeeee stuff, as they scrapped CS33 Large Tree Felling

[john dawson]

your next ticket up is cs32. and yes you would be advised to do this, if not legally, just for your own piece of mind.

 

a cs31 should cover you for felling trees upto 15" dia. any larger done with the same saw does require a different technique. the most common answer by most people is to just use a bigger bar, but this is not the same and may cause problems. not sure how much legally, but id say its no different to not having a ticket in the first place.

 

a cs32 is a good ticket and a good course, and i would recommend it.

[Rupe]

Why have you got your PL when you've only been working for 3 months and you are clearly employed by an estate??

 

Who's the "we" in "We have plenty more thinning to do later in the year"

 

No insurance is ever goign to pay up for anything in that scenario, no matter what size trees your felling.

[TonyP]

yes thats right cs 32 is next.i enjoyed that course.so able to knock the big ones over

[david wood]

worth doing the cs32 - if i can pass it then anyone can!

[Big J]

Thanks for the replies!

 

Thanks for the correction regarding CS32. Regarding differing techniques for felling, I am familiar with some of the different cuts as when doing the CS30+31, the group on the course was already familiar with chainsaw operation, so for days 4 and 5 we just did larger trees and winch take downs of hang ups. I have every intention of doing the larger trees ticket, as I will be doing a lot of felling in the coming years. The issue now is simply one of cost, and can it be postponed.

 

'We' are myself and my colleague. We are both self employed and sub contract for the estate we work on. However, we typically work an average of 3 days a week there. We both have our own PL insurance, both complete our own risk assessments and separately invoice. I suppose to all intents and purposes, we are employed as we have a theoretically limitless amount of work ahead of us.

 

I'm just posing the original question to ascertain exactly where we stand regarding larger trees. I would imagine that the largest we would come across for thinning in the new compartments would be around 500mm/20 inches.

 

Jonathan

[Brushcutter]

Checked this with our insurance company a little while ago.

 

CS 30 - Cross cutting and chainsaw lets you do this no size limit on the chainsaw or bar length.

 

CS31 - coveres felling upto 15" using upto a 15" bar. A longer bar can't be used.

 

Thats what our insurance bods told me. If anything happened while you were felling an 18" tree with 15" or 18" bar you'd get your self into insurance problems. Do CS32 teaches you about winches and how to deal with big stuff.

[tractorboy1]

Try to do your CS32 its a good course.

[Rupe]

 

 

'We' are myself and my colleague. We are both self employed and sub contract for the estate we work on. However, we typically work an average of 3 days a week there. We both have our own PL insurance, both complete our own risk assessments and separately invoice. I suppose to all intents and purposes, we are employed as we have a theoretically limitless amount of work ahead of us.

 

 

Utter Madness!! Two insurance policies that are a waste of money! You can't both sub contract and be colleagues. You either do two seperate jobs or you don't. If you look out for each other then you are working for each other, not seperatly.

 

 

The laws of felling different size trees are the last thing you need to worry about. In order to fulfill any best practice guidlines (not laws) you need someone working with you when operating chainsaw. Your "colleague" can't be working with you if he's on a seperate contract? That would imply he's on a different job. What a mess!!