In March, the Alabama Trails Foundation hosted a chainsaw handling and safety course for twenty-one trail maintainers. The Foundation partnered with the Alabama Pinhoti Trail Association to recruit active trail maintainers for the training. Many of these maintainers already do trail work with loppers and hand saws, but completing this course gives them new skills to have an even bigger positive impact on trails.
Dennis Helton of Helton Forestry Enterprises came from North Carolina to train the maintainers. A former employee of the US Forest Service (USFS), he played a major role in developing the training curriculum used for USFS chainsaw certifications nationwide.
Course goals included recertification for seasoned trail maintainers, teaching new maintainers how to handle a chainsaw, and an overall focus on safety when using a chainsaw. This certification helps ensure that best safety practices are being used. It also allows the dedicated maintainers to continue keeping the Pinhoti Trail in great condition by meeting the standards set by the USFS.
Trail maintenance is hard work and often exposes volunteers to potentially dangerous situations in remote locations. Ultimately, saw training is to help these dedicated volunteers become safer as they keep the Pinhoti Trail open for all of us.
“The chainsaw training provided an excellent learning opportunity for the Pinhoti volunteers and offered great instruction for assessing and achieving objectives along with providing hands-on training for skills development. The experience gained will help the volunteers conduct saw-related trail maintenance in a safe and authorized manner.”
– Hayward Warren, Alabama Pinhoti Trail Association
Trail maintainers learning about parts of the chainsaw and chainsaw maintenance.
Day one of the training focused on building chainsaw operation and safety knowledge. Subjects included chainsaw maintenance, safety protocols, creating an effective cut plan, and how to prioritize safety in every step of chainsaw operation. The classroom was the Barn at Bohamia, located within the Talladega National Forest near Talladega
Maintainers put their knowledge to the test on the last two days of training by demonstrating the skills they learned in the classroom. The location for field training days was provided by the USFS in the Talladega National Forest. Skills taught and demonstrated included limbing and bucking fallen trees, identifying hazardous trees, and felling hazardous trees. The maintainers were walked through many different scenarios and got hands on experience with each one.
Trail maintainers in the field.
Advancing and developing the skillset of trail maintainers is important for the longevity of the Pinhoti Trial and other trails in Alabama. Maintainers take care of the trail on their own time, and usually spend their own money on equipment. The Foundation appreciates everything the dedicated trail maintainers do, and we are happy to invest in trails by investing in those who take care of them.
Do you enjoy doing volunteer trail maintenance? Let us know what your favorite trail is to maintain in the comment section of our chainsaw training social media post on Facebook or Instagram.
