Green Horizons

Proper felling technique is only one lesson Professional Timber Harvester participants learn

If a tree falls in the woods are income and safety maximized? The Professional Timber Harvester Program, provided through the Missouri Forest Products Association (MFPA) in partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), is aimed at making the answer to this question a resounding YES!

Quality logging requires much more than just cutting down trees, and this course provides a holistic approach so that participants, be they professional loggers, professional foresters, forest contractors, or landowners, graduate with a full appreciation of how their different roles must interact to ensure a successful forest harvest.

Safety in logging operations is a major component of the course. Instructor Joe Glenn is an active logger with 30 years of experience. He also studied for three years as assistant instructor under Soren Eriksson, a master logger from Sweden who developed the Professional Timber Harvester program. Joe knows too many of his fellow loggers who have been seriously injured or killed due to misapplication of traditional logging techniques. Therefore, he knows firsthand the importance of safety. Some graduates from the course even experience lower insurance rates.

Many landowners have taken the course to learn more about how to properly manage their own woodlands as well as safely cut trees on their property. Mr. Glenn notes that very often the landowners taking the course get better marks on their felling techniques than the professional loggers. Joe explains, “Loggers subconsciously bring their old habits with them, but it is easier for a novice to strictly follow the directions given in the course.”

Participants complete the course with an expanded knowledge of how to accurately aim a felled tree to minimize damage to trees tagged to remain standing. Often landowners want only a partial harvest of their timber, so having a “professionally trained” logger that possesses the ability to leave the forest in an undamaged condition will result in both a healthier forest and increased income over time.

Equally important, forest ecology and wildlife considerations are presented. This allows landowners to work with their forester in planning a harvest that will optimize all the benefits their forest can provide.

The course is presented in five days held over a period of five to six months. In addition to the general forest management session the other four sessions cover increasingly complex application of advanced tree felling techniques and equipment care and management.

For more information or to register for the Professional Timber Harvester program contact Missouri Forest Products Association, 611 East Capitol Avenue, Suite One, Jefferson City, MO 65101-3038, call them at (573) 634-3252, or visit www.moforest.org