UK LOGGERS EVENT
UK
Loggers
visit
Penrith
52 MAY 20 18 FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UKF
OR harvesting contractor Dewi Williams the move
from Wales to the north of England has gone
well. Currently working on the western slopes
of Thirlmere in the Lake District, Dewi himself,
Gethin Hughes, Tom Haynes and John Stephenson
recently volunteered to spend a fine spring Saturday
back at college.
The director of Newton Rigg College, Jane Sullivan,
was keen to welcome them and the other forestry
professionals to Askham Bryan’s Penrith campus for the
UK Loggers event that Peter Fox had organised: “This is
an excellent opportunity for students past and present to
demonstrate their skills and share expertise.”
Shelagh Todd, Head of Horticulture and Forestry at
Newton Rigg, was present too, along with forestry
lecturers Richard Hunter and Martin Davies.
Richard explained how the event
came about: “One of my students
is preparing a project on logging
sports and I contacted Peter Fox.
The result was today’s event,
which has gone brilliantly. There
has been a lot of socialising and
the students are mixing with
professionals. We feel we have a
duty to introduce our students to
experienced professionals in the
forestry industry.”
Planned as a fairly informal
event, seven of the college students
from Level 2 and 3 forestry courses
were ‘going in at the deep end’ with only
60–100 hours’ chainsaw experience. While
not all the regulars in the UK Loggers team were able to
attend, enough had made the journey to Penrith to show
off their high levels of skills.
Dealing with the complexity of the score sheets was
Richard Siddons. After the lunch break, Richard retired
to a cool corner of the college’s Land and Wildlife
Management facility – the building also doubling as
the refreshment centre for the event – to convert extra
seconds into penalty points and subtract further points
for infringement of the rules. Regular timekeeper
and judge Tony Savage spent the full day starting and
stopping his timepiece and advising on legality issues.Peter Fox introduced each of
the disciplines to the students
and newcomers while the seasoned
competitors prepared themselves to
change the bar and chain and then move on
to the ‘combi-cut’, the ‘precision cut’ and the simulated
tree-felling. The snedding of the artificial tree would, as
always, bring about a dramatic and hugely competitive
conclusion to the event.
For local self-employed tree worker Darren
Brookbanks of Threlkeld it was the second chainsaw
competition he had entered: “It is a bit of fun and it’s
enjoyable to meet the other lads, but there are so many
opportunities that can come from the experience.” For
hugely experienced arborist Chris White, of Treevolution
in the Central Belt of Scotland, it was the challenge of
doing something new that persuaded him to register forAlun Jones on the
second of his logs
in the precision
cut. The object of
the exercise is to
sever as closely as
possible a couple
of discs between
3 and 8 cm thick
from the logs
without touching the
paint on the board
directly below them.
A layer of damp
sawdust obscures
vision of the critical
cutting area. Alun
left only the thinnest
of wafers attaching
the disc to the log
in each case.Simon Wallis of Euroforest adjudicates as Mark
Giddings prepares the artificial tree before
applying the felling cuts. The direction of fall in
this case is predicted by inserting a laser into the
directional cuts and projecting the beam onto a
screen. Peter Fox was keen to point out that the
UK Loggers attempt to keep the rules
governing their competitions as
standard as possible. One
exception in Britain
is the Royal Welsh
Show chainsaw
competition
which differs
slightly in
format and in
regulations.