Silviculture Sawing Could Be A Step Towards Falling

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From today's WSCA Rumour Mill Roundup:

OK, it’s an awkward headline. But what we mean is that the BC SAFE Silviculture Program is now working with the BC Forest Safety Council’s Falling Technical Advisory Committee (FTAC) to see how its silviculture saw training (slashing) might be brought into line with falling certification competencies. The goal would be to recognize slashing training and experience as counting as competency credits towards certification as a faller in B.C. Hand fallers require considerable training to acquire the basic skills to reach competency. When the training is undertaken all at once it requires months of instruction, tutelage and the expenses to go with it. At a time when hand fallers are aging out of the industry there is pressure to find alternative ways to fill their ranks with skilled workers. This modular scheme is being considered including arborist work, wildfire fighting and oil and gas falling. The opportunity comes at a time when silviculture saw operator instruction has languished due to low demand for silviculture slashing and lack of awareness of the training. If the silviculture saw training was seen as a step towards faller certification it might be an incentive for trainees and existing operators to come out of the woodwork to take the course.