Course
Old Fashioned Tree Felling
Course Overview
Chop, fell, skid and land. Learn the essential skills to safely obtain your own lumber or firewood from your land. In this two-day workshop, the basics of sustainably harvesting trees are covered through a variety of hands-on opportunities, discussions, hand-outs and demonstrations. What trees to cut? How to safely handle a chainsaw? How do I move the trees now that they're cut? The first day of the class covers safe practices of tree felling, including hand-felling trees with cross-cut saws, axes and light chainsaw work. As a group, participants will fell selected trees from a site and then return the next day to skid the logs with a pair of draft horses. You will learn simple skidding procedures that are easy to replicate at home with a tractor, pickup, 4-wheeler or other small machinery. There will also be discussions on historical logging methods.