Green Horizons

Volume 3, Number 4
Autumn 1998

1999 timber harvesting course

The Missouri Forest Products Association has announced the 1999 dates and sites for its Professional Timber Harvester course. While it is designed for the professional logger - interested landowners, foresters and others are welcome to enroll. (Several landowners already have completed this course.) It is taught by Soren Eriksson, internationally known trainer and woodsman, and by Skip Stokes, consulting forester. Each of the six training sites has five days of training to complete the course. The course description, site locations and dates are listed below:

Course descriptions

Forest Management: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

  • Managing for long-term profitability
  • Forest ecology
  • Best management practices

    Level 1: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

  • Protective equipment, such as chaps, boots, hard hat, first aid kit, and saw features
  • Parts of saw teeth, their purpose and settings, and how to properly sharpen them
  • Saw inspection and safety procedures
  • Bore cutting

    Level II: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

  • Establishing the notch and hinge
  • Use of felling wedges collecting data on hazards, tree height and lean, and escape route
  • Each participant felling a tree
  • Chain filing, carburetor setting and bar care
  • Cutting spring poles

    Level III: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (2 to 3 months later)

  • Calculating tree lean limits
  • Advanced cutting and wedging techniques on leaning trees
  • Bucking and limbing methods
  • Each participant felling a tree

    Level IV: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (2 to 3 months later)

  • Advanced felling
  • Planning efficient harvest layouts
  • Each participant felling a tree
  • Use of other powered forest management tools
  • Final evaluation and scoring

    Professional Timber Harvester session dates and locations 

    
Session A                     Session B
West Plains                   Ellington                
December 19 - Forest Mgt.     January 9 - Forest Mgt.  
January 13 - Level I          January 15 - Level I     
January 14 - Level II         January 16 - Level II    
March 26 - Level III          March 25 - Level III     
April 28 - Level IV           April 29 - Level IV      


Session C                     Session D
Hannibal                      Chillicothe                   
March 13 - Forest Mgt.        March 20 - Forest Mgt.        
March 19 - Level I            March 23 - Level I            
March 20 - Level II           March 24 - Level II           
May 3 - Level III             April 27 - Level III          
September 25 - Level IV       October 25 - Level IV         


Session E                     Session F
Columbia                      Piedmont
September 18 - Forest Mgt.    September 25 - Forest Mgt.
September 27 - Level I        September 29 - Level I
September 28 - Level II       September 30 - Level II
October 26 - Level III        October 27 - Level III
TBA - Level IV                TBA - Level IV

    The complete 5-day course fee is $135 for MFPA members and $155 for non-members. For more information contact MFPA, 611 East Capitol Avenue, Suite One, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or call (573) 634-3252.