Hardwood felling and thinning courses/CPD - any ideas?

[Big J]

I just wanted to float an idea around amongst those who regularly thin/fell production hardwoods.

 

Up here certainly, there is very little professional training (NPTC) that takes place in hardwoods. As a consequence of this, most folk coming out of their courses have no idea how to efficiently fell hardwoods and a lot of hang ups ensue.

 

I have a couple of newish guys working for me presently, who are as keen as mustard and technically competent. Virtually all of their work and training has been in softwoods up until now, and whilst they are putting as reasonable tonnage on the deck, there are a lot of hang ups and a lot more effort expended than is necessary. To illustrate, the last two days out, I've not had anything I've not been able to get down easily myself, and the felling lever made one appearance yesterday. Conversely, the other two guys hung up at least 4 or 5 times as many trees, and often had more work to get them down.

 

It is not that I feel that they aren't proficient, only that there is so much to consider in hardwoods that aren't issues in softwoods. For instance:

 

* Hardwoods are rarely line thinned. Softwoods are often line thinned.

* Hardwoods will more often than no have asymmetrical crowns, trailing limbs/secondary/tertiary leaders etc. Softwoods rarely do, and certainly at the size where manually addressing hangers becomes tricky, they are nearly always single stem.

 

I usually find that in self selection, I'll identify a tree I want to remove, identify a slot for it and then identify what needs to come out to minimise hang up risk. Then I'll go to the tree which needs to be removed to create that slot and repeat until I reach a tree that doesn't require other tree removal to create a slot. This ensures a quite quick production rate with minimal wasted effort. Don't work hard, work smart!

 

Anyway, I'm now at the point where I would be happy to instruct others in tackling manual hardwood thinnings/felling and was wondering if anyone else did anything similar? If so, how do you approach it? I would certainly present it as a reasonably advanced course, separate from any certification like NPTC, done solely to improve production and quality of work.

 

This country has too much softwood and a pretty negative public perception of forestry. Without better training in what is increasingly becoming a public amenity, that's not going to change. I just don't think that doing a few weeks worth of work in Sitka is going to give anyone much experience for slotting a 70ft, 10 inch DBH Beech down through a 3 foot crown gap.

 

I'd love to see a situation where commercial and amenity forestry where pretty much one and the same (as they are on the continent). We've had lots of members of the public on the estate say they were pleasantly surprised that the forestry work had actually improved their experiences.

 

So in short, do you do anything similar? If so, please elaborate on your experiences. If not, what would you do in my position?

 

Jonathan

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

First I don't agree we have too much softwood; we don't have near enough either type of wood!

 

Did my tickets 80% on hardwood and the rest on larch; I was better at dropping h/wood thinnings than fluffy evergreen thinnings so I guess the course sets you up more one way than the other.

 

Relatively soon after I got into h/wood thinings on a self select basis - thrown in the deep end; better than any course imo.

[john k]

Sounds like a really good idea to me. Shouldn't CS32 cover some of this though?

[Big J]

First I don't agree we have too much softwood; we don't have near enough either type of wood!

 

Did my tickets 80% on hardwood and the rest on larch; I was better at dropping h/wood thinnings than fluffy evergreen thinnings so I guess the course sets you up more one way than the other.

 

Relatively soon after I got into h/wood thinings on a self select basis - thrown in the deep end; better than any course imo.

 

That is a very valid point! Perhaps I should amend my statement to "we have proportionally too much softwood".

 

It's certainly an issue up here. The Commission have almost no hardwood, for instance. All training that I'm aware of is done on softwood. The two chaps working for me came through a social enterprise forestry training company and have had very little time in hardwood. All their funding comes from the commission so all their training/felling has to be done on their land, resulting in no hardwood experience.

 

Jonathan

[Big J]

Sounds like a really good idea to me. Shouldn't CS32 cover some of this though?

 

It's more the manual forestry that I'm interested in. Their is no reason for machinery on smaller trees and the production felling is generally covered by CS30-31 from an insurance point of view. What is doesn't cover is the technical adaptions/learning curve required to make the transition from softwood to hardwood.

 

I should stress for the record that I'm not that quick in softwood. No experience in it and I find it pretty tedious!

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Regional; FC has more flippin oak and beech down here than anything else; do tend to assume scotland has the lions share of conifers; sitka down here goes rocket fast; fine for pulp, crap for structural.

[john k]

It's more the manual forestry that I'm interested in. Their is no reason for machinery on smaller trees and the production felling is generally covered by CS30-31 from an insurance point of view.

Sorry, looks like I read your post too quickly, and got in into my head that you were talking about bigger stuff.

[Spruce Pirate]

I'd agree with much of what you say Big J, having just finished a small hardwood thinning (oak) I experienced many of the same problems. It does have to be said that this was the first hardwood thinning I've done in a couple of years, and that's probably about the frequency of them, so we don't get the chance to practice in hardwood.

 

I like to think I'm pretty profficient at getting a tree on the deck, but if you manage to get a course/seminar/training day, whatever you have in mind, put together I'd certainly be interested in it.

[Highland Forestry]

70ft 10inch beech... Get a harvester

[NI Tree]

70ft 10inch beech... Get a harvester

 

not always the answer unfortunately

 

 

ps john i would come to if i am in Scotland at the time