Chainsaw Course - Edith's Gap

[MikeB]

The chain saw course is tentatively scheduled for Mar 3 and 4 at
Edinburg. Safety equipment will be supplied except footwear which must
be vibram soled boots with 8" uppers . "Long sleeves must be worn". He
has reserved 3 slots (of the 15 available) for our club. He has only
two names, however, myself and John E who wrote a
letter to them in December. The certification is valid for 3 years
and an annual refresher course is required. Participants must have a
valid certificate in First Aid and CPR.
If you are interested and have the First Aid/CPR certification. let's have some fun on the cutting edge.
Michael Brooks
Hedgesville, WV

PS Ellis has opted out of the first seating so if John E is in, we have one slot to fill,and some backups would be neat.




From: wuffo1@aol.com <wuffo1@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Ediths' Gap work
To: jm.brooks1@gmail.com
Cc: cavanaug@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, e46kim@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, January 27, 2012, 8:33 PM

Michael,

First, let's try to get three people into the chain saw course. I know that Mark Cavinaugh and Elllis Kim expressed an interest in getting into the chain saw course. So did a couple of others who posted on the CHGPA site.

Keep in mind that the Forest Service's primary interest is in eliminating the invasive Alanthus. We want to focus our attention on our ability to help eliminate the Alanthus at Edith's Gap. The fact that it supports our hang gliding efforts is secondary to the USFS.

Edith's Gap has never had a large contingent of CHGPA pilots fly it. There are fundamentally two reasons for it. The first is that the earlier generation hang gliders had difficulty reaching the traditional LZs as would even most of today's PGs. The second is that the slot was very narrow and required near perfect launch conditions for safe launches.

Modern hang gliders have better glide ratios and can more easily reach the traditional LZs. The new LZ I got permission for us to land it can easily be reached by the PGs and the entry level hang gliders. If the USFS permits us to widen the slot to the boundaries that Mark Cavinaugh and I taped off the site should get a significant amount of usage and thus provide the club with the incentive to continue to maintain it.

I have been attempting to deal with the National Parks Service in an effort to get them to loosen their restrictions on flying in National Parks. Their rules are much more restrictive than the USFS's. I do not believe that using the NPS as a model to engage the USFS is a constructive plan. In fact I think just the opposite. I think that you'd be wasting your time trying to pursue that angle.

Once again please post the results of your effort on the CHGPA server. Try to get three people signed up with a couple of back ups. Having three people attend with demonstrate that we are likely to be able to maintain the site once we return it to a suitable condition. You are welcome to post this email thread if you like.

Thanks for all of your assistance.

Dan Tomlinson
Director, Region 9 USHPA

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Brooks <jm.brooks1@gmail.com>
To: wuffo1 <wuffo1@aol.com>
Cc: Cavanaugh, Mark (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [E] (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [E] <cavanaug@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>
Sent: Thu, Jan 26, 2012 4:25 pm
Subject: Ediths' Gap work

Cameron Seales from the Lee Ranger District Office just called.
His steps in the project are 1) chain saw certification, 2) clearing
invasive species, 3) reviving a launch site and 4) our flying.

The chain saw course is tentatively scheduled for Mar 3 and 4 at
Edinburg. Safety equipment will be supplied except footwear which must
be vibram soled boots with 8" uppers . "Long sleeves must be worn". He
has reserved 3 slots of the 15 available for our club. He has only
two names, however, myself and one other person (not Dan) who wrote a
letter to them some time ago. ) The certification is valid for 3 years
and an annual refresher course is required. Participants must have a
valid certificate in First Aid and CPR.

He said Dan has the volunteer agreement that indicates what we can do to
maintain the site (bucking and felling up to a given diameter).

He said that the office/district is re-evaluating projects, especially
ones not yet started, a process started last year. He said that
completion of the chainsaw course does not mean we start clearing the
launch site immediately. He sees more "official" interest in the
clearing of non native invasive species (an on-going type general
project) than opening an old launch site. Also he didn't have any
paperwork about HG/PG operations protocols in national forests. He
didn't know about Hogback, Millers Head and Dickey Hill, our Shenandoah
NP sites). Can we get him from our files something about the NPS
protocols ? What do we have about flying at Woodstock? We could send
him a copy of our releases and contact in East Luray.

The district projects being approved will be those that require little
effort on their part and advance existing priorities. He would like a
letter/e-mail from 'us' indicating how many pilots might use the site
and how much effort we could put into maintaining the site (chainsaw
recertification willingness, keeping ailanthus down?). BTW, do we know
how many people fly at other NPS sites?

Also. there will be public meeting to discuss 'projects' in the
district. No date set at present.
I hope to hear from you before I post the chainsaw course information on
the CHGPA website. Please let me know who are the second and third
persons for the chainsaw course.
There may be more openings as other groups (some 17 of them) do not
participate.

I hope your 'vacation' is going well.
Regards
Michael Brooks

[MikeB]

Would members who want to take the chainsaw course please let me know ASAP else the Forest Service will let our slots go to other organizations.
First-Aid/CPR certification is required. The course is two days, Mar 3 and 4, in Edinburg. See prior post first paragraph for more details.
Michael Brooks

[deveil]

i'm interested, however Do put others who are interested in line before me.
will need to do the CPR/First-Aid first.

this may be useful:
http://www.trailbuilders.org/conference/Chainsaw.html

[deveil]

ps. I've a chainsaw to lend and perhaps sell

[MikeB]

Thanks Gary D. WIll you have the First Aid/CPR before the course dates (which are tentative at the moment). Cameron has said 'online' courses don't count for now.

[deveil]

i'll be starting immediately to try and line up the courses for myself.

btw, are we actually restricted to three spots, or is it that 3 will initially be held open for us? i.e. could i just go ahead and sign up on my own without affiliation, assuming there are openings?

that way i'd have a spot reserved independently and there would still be a club slot open for an additional person.

in any event, how about i put it this way: if someone expresses interest within say one week, go ahead and put them ahead of me, after that grace period go ahead and put me into the slot. that way i don't go getting all jazzed up and get dumped at the last moment.

that make any sense?

[MikeB]

The Lee District has 17 organizations interested in volunteer work in the National Forest. We are late in joining that group. The class is only 15 seats, and we have 3 based on John E's letter and my calls. If there is less demand for places in the course and we have a waiting list, we may get another slot or 2.
The date is still tentative (Mar 3 and 4). So anyone with First Aid/CPR interested in volunteer work at our sites is welcome to sign up. We'll know in the near future the certainty of attending the course.
Mike

[MikeB]

PS. By sign up, please send me that information to me here, so I can send Cameron a list of CHGPA members ready to sign up. He can do without calls from each of us about space available, requirements, etc.
Thanks

[MikeB]

Peter Hume just told me he has signed up for the course. So the 3 slots are filled at the moment. Any comments from John E, Dan or Marc?

[Dan T]

I suggest that you make a list of others who might be interested. There is a good chance that there will be last minute opportunities to join in.

When the time gets close let the Forest Service know that we can bring additional attendees if they can accommodate them. They probably will want to fill their course if they can.

Dan

[MikeB]

I think pilots and club members who are more active flying locally should have priority for the chainsaw course, so Gary will take my place. If a slot opens up, I'll be there too.
S: John H, Peter H, Gary D officially. I'll call Cameron tomorrow to confirm.
Happy Chips
Mike

[JohnE]

Mike
When I signed up, I had thought it would be in late February. Due to work committments, I can make it on the March dates, but with very considerable difficulty.

So I would very much appreciate you taking my place and then I will go with the next class.

I apologize for the trouble.
Thank you very much for spearheading this effort!
John Hopkinson

[MikeB]

Thanks John,
So it's Peter H, Gary D and me. If anyone else is interested and can get the First-aid/CPR let me know so Cameron can have a 'waiting list' if other places aren't taken.

[deveil]

where are the boot tops measured from?

[deveil]

[deveil]

fyi, there are 1st aid/cpr courses available in Arlington on the 14th and the 28th of Feb. always a good thing to have under ones belt, regardless of whether one is going to be at risk of cutting ones leg off.

btw, i have a 16in chain saw that i'd be willing to trade straight up for a pair of 10" high-tops, size 11, in good shape. mostly serious on that one actually.
when i do get a pair i will make them available to subsequent trainees.
really, when's the next time anyone would need 10" high tops? halloween maybe? l'il Abner, Madonna maybe?

[deveil]

or Lady Gaga
or Paul Bunyan

[MikeB]

Are the tops proportional to the manhood?
Only 8" are needed for the forestry work!

[deveil]

make that size 13
13 wide

[MikeB]

from Cameron by email re chainsaw course Mar 3 and 4:
The next chainsaw course will be next year.
There is no "cost" for the course itself. It will be at least 8 hrs/day; they don't provide accomodations.
They provide the chainsaw. We bring boots, long sleeve shirt, CPR/first aid certification and leather gloves.
boots with 8" uppers are the safety requirement, but 7" "will do". I didn't ask about 6".
Peter Humes, Gary Devan , and Michael Brooks are signed up. The email adding Bjorn Jernudd has not be replied to. I will follow up in a few days.

[Dan T]

Mike,

You said next year, did you mean next month?

[RichH]

Based on what has been already discussed I wonder if it would be worth the conversation on which site we would like to do first: Woodstock or Ediths Gap if the Forest Service allows us to move forward. My last conversation with Cameron it sounded like they were setting up a list of projects based on their priorities and I get the impression their time is limited to spend on HG/PG projects. Obviously if we can do both great..but the second project may have to wait a bit before it moves forward..just wondering what pilots feel is the most important/priority? Rich Hiegel

[MikeB]

Next year= 2013.

[Dan T]

I think the thing to do is to pursue both initiatives until/unless we are asked to set priorities. The USFS has a vested interest in getting some volunteer labor to help clean up the Edith's Gap site because it is overrun with an invasive tree (Ailanthus) that they would like to see eradicated. They don't have the same issue with Woodstock.

Due to the prevailing winds and a number of other factors Woodstock will always be the more popular of the two sites as far as HG/PG participation is concerned.

Dan

[MikeB]

Apologies for any confusion about the chainsaw course dates.
The 'Next Course' is Mar 3 and 4 of 2012, officially tentative dates. The next course after this (that?) one will be in 2013.
Any club members interested in whacking timber in the GW national forest should let me know so the Forest Service can fill the class if other organizations don't fill their slots. See course requirements above.