class "c" feller

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Oh yeah there's definetly stuff big enough to bring your 066,I'll have my 064AV w/36" on it ,and my new 385XP w/32" on it as well,so if you want you could bring it.

Tree huggers do SUCK......
I chased one off one of my jobs once with my Hydro Ax:laugh:you should of seen him runnin!!!!Funniest thing I saw that whole day...

Later Rob..

Chapel Hill in which county Orange or Madison either way it's at least a 800mile trip to where I'am at,thats a long ride.I just came back for Cedar Falls Iowa a few weeks ago that was a 1300 mile trip drove straight in 22hrs man was I tired when I got there..Just thought I'd let ya know what you were in for...
 
orange county, 800 mi... and??? i drove 1,200 mi to main just to shoot a bear:D
 
Class A,B,+C are forest service designations. I'm not an employee so I couldn't tell you what they mean in the normal course of work.

However they are used in wildland firefighting to designate qualifications;
A=brush clearer and/or swamper, can cut <8" dbh
B=up to 24"dbh
C=over 24"dbh

Should be noted that a faller on a fire usually spends his time cutting dangerous snags so line can be built. That 24" tree might not have much holding wood. A class C faller is probably the most dangerous job on a fire.

You get qualified by taking a 3 day class, S212. Just taking the class and showing some proficiency will get you the A rating. Being good will get you a B rating. C ratings are hard to come by because not many people are qualified to give that certification. And I believe you have to requalify every 2 years.
 
cool, i was wondering what exactly it was, saw rbtree talking about it and got curios. started sufing the net trying to find out more about to see what it was but couldn't find anything:(
 
rob what size bar would you run on an 066 for what you do??? i was thinking 24-28" bar w/skip chain...any thoughts:rolleyes:
 
Howdy-

I'd like to expand on swampwhiteoak's explanation of the "C" felling designation. It is indeed a U.S. Forest Service certification, and the C rating is very hard to come by. The agency sends one of their experienced chainsaw safety instructors out with a knowledgable private industry person ( usually the "Bullbuck" or the woods boss from a local logging company ). Both individuals watch you fall and buck a variety of trees and already downed logs, including a big blowdown. Then both give you an evaluation and they recommend you for the cert. Then it is sent to a local office where an agency bigwig gives their thumbs up. The Bureau Of Land Management, National Parks Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and many State and local governments use this same system. The S-212 "Wildfire powersaw" class is mostly designed for forest fire fighting and covers many of the fireline safety practices needed for brushing, falling, and bucking wood that is on fire or has been burned, which is a whole different ballgame.
 
thanks jacob, do ya'll still fell any old growth on a regular basis??? how hard is it to get a job felling and what can you expect for starting pay???
 
Howdy Ryan-

Most west coast logging outfits expect a timber faller to have some experience working on a logging crew first ( I think this was mentioned in a previous post ) so usually a guy has to spend a couple years on rigging crews working "the brush" before they put him to work cutting. That way you'll have a handle on where the wood is best placed for removal and you'll have an idea where the "Lanes" or skidding routes will be.

All of the logging shows out west here are mostly "High Lead", meaning that they use a tower yarder with a rolling carriage on a "skyline" and a "haulback" which carries all your chokers for looping wood. So basically a faller has to know how this all works before they enter the side to start falling.

Not much old growth anymore here, since the federal work is pretty much shut down, but hopefully Bush's plan will open the doors to some federal work, because some of it really does need to be done.

As far as pay goes, a starting cutter can expect to make a day rate. A larger outfit will start you out around 200 a day for 6-7 hours worth of cutting, and they'll start you in a younger, smaller stand of timber until you get your skills and stamina built up. Experienced cutters cut for scale, or board footage, and that's the best way to go. Most big outfits here will pay you at least $11.00 per thousand board feet, especially if you're using your own hydraulic jacks. It's fairly easy to cut around 25,000 board feet in just over 6 hours, depending on the type of ground you're working. That's with decent second growth averaging 30" butts.

My dad cut timber in Alaska in the late 70's and was averaging $600.00 a day cutting giant Sitka Spruce and Yellow Cedar. He ran McCulloch Pro 125s with 60" bars and Silvey 160 ton tree jacks ( triple RAMs ).

One more thing about western falling-
It's good to find yourself a partner, a buddy who's experienced and wants to go to work as a team for cutting. The biggest outfits hire cutters in "sticks", or teams of two, that way a guy isn't by himself in case he gets injured. Most guys work as contractors and they'll have from two to 14 guys working as a small crew. Each guy keeps track of his own scale and writes his own scale tickets and turns them into the "bullbuck" or cutting boss. The "bullbuck" works out of the "Bull shack" where they discuss a lot of "bull shoot".
 
thats pretty cool, how would some one like me go about contacting a company for a job??? where would i look, and would they recognize felling experiance from eastern logging???
 
Howdy Ryan-

A good job search engine like

http://www.jobs.state.ak.us/

There's openings in Alaska right now for day rate cutters to live on the job and use the company's equipment.

or

http://www.hr.das.state.or.us/jobs/

is a good place to start. There's also several big west coast outfits right now looking for cutters. Columbia helicopters has a standing ad on Madsen's website: http://www.madsens1.com

click on "logger's listings".
A big outfit near me is also looking for cutters: Huffman-Wright, their phone is: 541-839-4251

they'll give you the name and number of the cutting boss.

All of these outfits will recognize eastern cutting experience if you are familiar with different types of face cuts ( conventional, Humboldt, block-out style Humboldt, ultra-wide ) and if you're fast with a spencer tape cutting log lengths. The best thing to outline is that you're familiar with working on slopes and placing wood on contours without breaking it.
 
thanks Jacob, when i get a little more experinance with the tape i'll start looking. i'm not to fast with a tape right now, but i am pretty good at putting stuff down where its supposed to go:rolleyes: just good enough to get a promotion to crew leader today:D
 
Come on now Ryan you need to pick up the pace when using the Spencer and doing all the bucking if your not fast with the tape that really kills production..Keep on working on it cause when you come up here you'll be needing it alot and I sure don't want someone who cant keep up.....If I did I would hire my old man :D

later Rob....
 
hey now!!!:D the boss man saw measures and he's pretty quick too:cool: i don't do enough of it to pick up any speed:(
 

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