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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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Chainsaw Safety Course at Hocking College May 13

April 21, 2011

NELSONVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio State University Extension’s Ohio Woodland Stewards Program is offering a chainsaw safety course at Hocking College May 13.

Called “Basics of Safe Chainsaw Operation,” it’s for anyone wanting to learn good practices and lower the risk of injury -- farmers, woodland owners and others.

Why bother? In part because the average chainsaw injury, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, takes 110 stitches and brings on more than $12,000 in medical bills.

Teaching the course will be Mike Kessler and Dale Hatfield, tree care and timber harvesting instructors at the college who have nearly 40 years of combined experience in teaching chainsaw safety.

There will be classroom talks on safety gear, saw maintenance and saw safety features; field sessions on directional felling, bucking and limbing; and hands-on instruction and practice with chainsaws.

Registration costs $150, includes lunch and is due by May 9. Participation is limited to 20 people.

Register by sending your name, contact information, and check or money order payable to “The Ohio State University” to Ohio State University Extension, Athens County, 280 W. Union St., Athens, OH 45701.

For liability reasons, participants must enroll in, and will receive, a quarter-hour credit through Hocking College. Completing an enrollment form, including providing one's Social Security number and other personnel information, is required as a part of this. 

 

Contact OSU Extension’s Dave Apsley, 740-286-5044, apsley.1@osu.edu, or Rory Lewandowski, 740-593-8555, lewandowski.11@osu.edu, for details.

The course also qualifies for six hours of continuing education credit for landowners participating in the Ohio Forest Tax Law program.

 

Chainsaws and chaps will be provided. All participants must wear leather boots and bring a hard hat, eye protection (safety googles) and hearing protection (ear plugs, muffs or both).

Meet at Hocking College’s Fleet Garage (Auto Petro Center), 15477 State Route 691, Nelsonville, about a quarter-mile west of the Inn at Hocking College.

Support for the course is provided by the George W. Broughton Endowment and OSU Extension’s Buckeye Hills Extension Education and Research Area (EERA) and Ohio Valley EERA.

OSU Extension sponsors the Ohio Woodland Stewards Program in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry to teach people about trees, forests and related resources and how to know and manage them better. Goals include helping landowners make well-informed forest-management decisions and, in the end, even healthier forests.

OSU Extension is the outreach arm of Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

 

Author(s): 
Kurt Knebusch
Source(s): 
Dave Apsley, Rory Lewandowski