The Shelton Trails Committee works closely with Connecticut Forest and Parks Association to maintain and improve the Paugussett Trail; one of the oldest historic trails in Shelton and Connecticut. Some of us have gone through CFPA chainsaw training classes and learned a lot of good things to make our lives a lot safer and more efficient. Pretty much none of us are not professional loggers, but it's always good to learn from one, particularly Bill Girard, on a cold and rainy November Sunday.
CFPA schedules a variety of trail training sessions for volunteers throughout the year. In this case it was a Refresher Chainsaw Training for experienced trail maintainers. Bill is in the center and runs the Games of Logging training program for CFPA. He not only does chainsaw training, but has his own logging company in Massachusetts, and brings a wealth of practical insight on how to cut up trees on Connecticut's trails while minimizing the chances of getting hurt.
I say minimizing, because any time you go out and work on trails there's always a chance of getting hurt. In most cases it's pretty low, but things will happen (cut by briars, poison ivy, stung by wasps, etc.). Other times you are chainsawing a tree hung up over a trail following a hurricane, and it's over your head, and the stakes are quite a bit higher. That's when you REALLY appreciate the training that CFPA (and Bill in particular) brings to the table. There is a lot of applied physics in getting a tree that's perched across a trail down in a controlled manner, so it's less of a danger and doesn't hurt the trail volunteers.
Lets start with PPE. CFPA is a very safety conscious organization: they have us sign liability waivers, wear hard hats, safety glasses, chainsaw chaps, ear muffs, face shields, boots, and other safety paraphernalia. Partially, because they don't want to get sued, but also because they truly want to protect their volunteers.