Bert Turner, CAMN  Chair for Trail Construction and Maintenance, answers the question "Why do Master Naturalists need a chainsaw course?"

Arkansas Master Naturalists work to keep Arkansas in Its Natural State.  Since that doesn't mean we take an absolute hands-off approach to nature, we have to be judicious about what we do to "manage" nature and how we do it.  To get along with nature, we sometimes have to modify what happens in our forests.  One of those things we have to do to peacefully coexist is eliminate hazards from trees that might fall on us or on our property; keep parts of the forest at bay to prevent fires, weather, and other phenomena from turning our homes and towns into heaps of rubbish; remove diseased or infested trees from forests we have let get too dense; and generally control the orderly flow of people in our forests on planned trails.  In other words, we sometimes have to cut trees down, or once they are down move those downed trees into places where they will do the most good or maybe the least damage.  We could do that with a bulldozer, an ax, or some other implement, but often the tool of choice is a chainsaw.  Used properly a chainsaw is a safe and effective way to help manage our forests.  Used inappropriately, however, it can quickly become a weapon of destruction for the forest, or in more tragic cases a killing machine for ourselves, our family, or our friends. 

To make sure you know how to properly and safely use a chainsaw, you should take a formal course in chain saw operation and application.  It's not enough to know how to fire one up to make cool sounds, you need to know how to sharpen and maintain the tool, you need to be familiar with binding and compression forces in trees, you must understand bucking and felling techniques, you must comprehend safety factors, and the list goes on.  For example, from a safety standpoint most of us recognize we need to be far enough away from a falling tree that it won't land on us, but do we think about staying far enough away that we won't get hit by the tree that the falling tree takes out its way down?  That safety zone is actually quite large, even for a downed tree you may be bucking up.

So if you want to be a forest hugger who can help nature and people coexist without killing either of us, I highly recommend you take the two day chain saw training course.  You won't become an expert in two days, but at least you will increase the probability that you will grow old enough to become an expert at some point.  Plus you will be doing nature a favor by helping maintain a healthy and inviting forest.  So I encourage you sign up today for the limited-availability course on February 19 and 20 at PMSP. 

For more pictures of the CAMN chain saw class, see our photo gallery.

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Another article to read was written by Dwan Garrison NCAMN who attended the class recently.

To learn more about the Master Naturalist training program, go to "how do I join"