NH Forestry student looking for info.

[STIHLMAN83]

I am 26 years old and starting going back to school for forestry at UNH. This came about because work got slow (arborist) and I looked at it as an advantage to go back to school. So, I know work in the woods is slow but I am looking for anyone possibly looking for help part time, including both weekend days. Anything would be appreciated, any help going about just asking someone if they would be interested in something like that. Thanks in advance.

 

[andosca]

same guy with the ad on craigslist asking people if they want to pay you $35 an hour to split their wood?

 

[AT sawyer]

One suggstion

This is free advise, and but one angle on this topic for what it's worth -- consider joining a trail maintaining club as a volunteer sawyer (you aren't working anywhere now are you?). I became a USFS certified sawyer years ago and am active in an Appalachian Trail maintaining club. People now associate me with chainsaws, blowdowns, felling, etc. and occasionally call me for tree work (which I don't charge for unless you consider Sam Adams compensation). But if I did want to take it beyond brewskis, that door would be open.

You've got to start your rep somewhere. Others on this site can tell you the value of a good reputation.

 

[STIHLMAN83]

No I do not have an ad charging 35 dollars an hour. Thanks for the advice. I had got in touch with the USDA Forest Service at their northern office asking just that, if there was any volunteer work I could get involved with and couldnt get a straight answer. I am not giving up though. Thanks again.

 

[slowp]

This is the wrong time of year to get hold of Forest Service people. Wait till after the first of the year. Many are using their use or lose (vacation time) right now.

For volunteering, talk to the recreation people. Ask who does it, and when they have their saw certification. A session gets put on every year here for the Back Country Horsemen, and others.

 

[371groundie]

not that either feild is stellar at the moment, but are you looking for logging work, or forestry work?

 

[STIHLMAN83]

I am looking for forestry, logging, tree work...anything along those lines.

 

[euroford]

sorry for the threadjack, just thought i'd post up since it was mentioned. in april i'm moving to the colorado front range and would be very interested in USFS sawyer certification so i can do volunteer trailwork. can anybody offer me some pointers on how to chase this down?

 

[371groundie]

utility line clearance tree work sucks, but its reliable. gotta watch your 6 cause theres some scum, but if you find the right foreman you can learn alot.

priviate places wont start hiring until aprilish, but it never hurts to give them a resume now and then call them for a memory jog in february or march.

logging, youll be lucky to find somone hiring, but you can always try. you might try to find an older one man operation to work with so when he retires he will sell you his skidder for a song.

check with some of the larger forestry firms, some of them hire timber markers for the summer months. i got a seasonal job summers in college doing mostly boundary line maintanence.

also talk with class mates at UNH, networking is key.

ps. dont join the woodsmen team unless you want umaine to kick your butt.

 

[slowp]

sorry for the threadjack, just thought i'd post up since it was mentioned. in april i'm moving to the colorado front range and would be very interested in USFS sawyer certification so i can do volunteer trailwork. can anybody offer me some pointers on how to chase this down?

Read the earlier posts.

 

[hammerlogging]

slowP, I was looking to hire a FS hotshot "faller" to try cutting for us, maybe some occasional hooking, he asked if we had swampers. I told the crew. Know what, now the big joke is "where's my swamper?" or the like.

Everyone needs a swamper.

 

[slowp]

slowP, I was looking to hire a FS hotshot "faller" to try cutting for us, maybe some occasional hooking, he asked if we had swampers. I told the crew. Know what, now the big joke is "where's my swamper?" or the like.

Everyone needs a swamper.

It's a fire thing. Along with the stick walk.:greenchainsaw:

 

[AT sawyer]

sorry for the threadjack, just thought i'd post up since it was mentioned. in april i'm moving to the colorado front range and would be very interested in USFS sawyer certification so i can do volunteer trailwork. can anybody offer me some pointers on how to chase this down?

All trail clubs have links to sawyer certifications and usually run their courses several times per year. You'd have to join the club, but that's usually low $$. Contact one of these and see where it takes you:

http://www.coloradotrail.org/volunteer.html

http://www.cdtrail.org/page.php

 

[woodbooga]

I am looking for forestry, logging, tree work...anything along those lines.

Some other volunteer opportunities might be available at the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (better known as the Forest Society). They work closely with the NH Timberland Owners Association and other trade groups to promote NH's forest economy whilst protecting the state's most important landscapes.

They have a stewardship program that uses volunteers for a lot of hands on things. http://www.spnhf.org/ourproperties/land-stewardship.asp

Time of year is not right, but the NH Snowmobile Association oversees a huge network of trails that need maintenence. http://www.nhsa.com/

 

[STIHLMAN83]

thanks for the info. I am pretty involved with the snowmobile community doing trail work in my area. I will look into that link. Thanks again for the info. I appreciate the help.

 

[tramp bushler]

If you have a chain saw and a pickup you can sell firewood ....... I,m amazed that something so simple is so complicated for some ......... Go be a firewood outlaw . You will be amazed at what you will learn .............
.
. The other thing , everyone wants to be a (certified Faller) ... Like the certification will take the life threatening , sweat runnin down the crack of your ass, exguastion out of it and then you can sit in the bar and be cool ..........
. The biggest ingredient to being a faller , and not a piece of ----. is HARD WORK ...... DO YOU LIKE TO WORK SO HARD YOU CAN,T THINK STRAIGHT ...FOR A LIVING ..... ALL THE TIME ...... .... If you want to be a faller , certified or not , forget college , Find someplace where trees are hittin the ground every day , and get on the crew ... If you have to , get on setting chockers . then outwork everyone else on the crew ... Have a really good attitude , and out work the rest of the crew ..... That way you can,t be like some whining punk on some reality tv show who is whineing because they are tired WWWAAAAAHHHHH WWWWAAAAAHHHHHH. if you whine at a high enough pitch some coyote may think you are a rabbit and come running .. Then some man can shoot the coyote !!!!!!!!!........ No whineing until the rest of the crew has dropped !!!!!

. You young guys ,,, You don,t need anyone elses permission , or approval , execpt the guy who is paying you ...Just GO DO IT ......

You don,t want to be a cull , or a prick about it , having a real good attitude is important ........
. How do you find where they are loggin ? go to a mill and follow the log trucks back out into the brush .. simple as fallin off a log .............. And in the mean time find someone who will sell you firewood stumpage and get to it !!! ....... MAKING A GOOD LIVING WITH A POWER SAW IS SIMPLE ...BUT IT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU CAN DO ......

 

[AT sawyer]

Saws Certs

All the certifications will do is show you how to run your saw safely and size up a cut, which for a new guy is a learning experience. Having sat through numerous certs and recerts for chainsaws, I get to where I can spot an Old-Guy-With-Attitude. No PPE, filthy saw, dull chain, used motor oil in his saw's reservoir, etc.... He will generally stick his saw ten seconds into his first top bind cut and whenever the instructor points out an unsafe practice, he'll say over and over "that's how we always did it on the farm/ on the job/ in the old days...........

Learn to do it right and then get your practice where the trees are falling.

 

[tramp bushler]

You learn to do it right , by being on a professional show .. Not some hillbilly spit hick ignoramous ,or prissy college boy wanna be outfit .......... I have seen a very few college boys who could work hard and actually get something accomplished with a saw ......They are always lazy wooises who want to migrate to ( management ) ............ Some of them actually excell at that and once in a while they are good at it and good to have there .... But there is almost nothing worse than some prik who learned it in school then wants to make the cuttin crew do it the way their instructor taught them ....You must not have followed the immense diatribe on here this summer from some college , fire line cutters and their Certifications ........ They don,t know ---- about gettin some wood on the ground .....
. There are a few execptions , like Burvol and Tarzan who started out cutting , But mostly the best fallers start out loggin ........
. It,s like if you want to fly a fighter jet , or tactical bomber . you still have to go to boot camp and do push ups and get screamed at first ......... Thats what settin chockers is , boot camp ...

 

[slowp]

Um, I think all they want to do is cut out some trails. To do that officially on Forest Service land, with a volunteer group, gotta get that green card. But, around here there's a lot of folks who just pack a saw along on their motorcycle in the spring and open up trails stealth like. Or pack it in on foot.:monkey:

Our certifiers here are the trail crew guys. They know what they do and have been cutting trees out of trails hazard trees along roads, in campgrounds, and on fires for 25 years, together! No attitude like some, but good guys. The main one gets certified by a local legend faller guy. So I have a lot of respect for the guys.

The certifying time is a good time to ask questions of them and learn some tricks. I've enjoyed it. There are some who can make it unpleasant, but they are not here.

They might have gone to a community college? But who cares. I've watched them take down some scary trees and they do it well.

 

[tramp bushler]

I am 26 years old and starting going back to school for forestry at UNH. This came about because work got slow (arborist) and I looked at it as an advantage to go back to school. So, I know work in the woods is slow but I am looking for anyone possibly looking for help part time, including both weekend days. Anything would be appreciated, any help going about just asking someone if they would be interested in something like that. Thanks in advance.

.

.

. Nope , He was lookin for work !!!!! I know , I,m a prik ,,, Welcome to life in the brush ..