Western Carolina University forestry students listen as GOL instructor David Sienko explains the principles around directional felling and the open-face notch.

Western Carolina University forestry intern Derren Rosbach (right) and GOL instructor David Sienko (left) stand at the base of a 39-inch yellow poplar felled by Rosbach.

Participants in the GOL training session held March 15 and 16 at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Pictured from left to right (front) Dennis Desmond and Mary Yonce. (rear) Nick Pallotta, Philip Ramsey, Scott Avis, Peter Bates, David Sienko, Samantha Farmer, Jerrine Peeler, and Derrin Rosbach.

Forestry interns learn valuable lessons during Game of Logging training in the southern Appalachians

by Peter Bates
Associate Professor of Natural Resources Management
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723

Six forestry students from the Natural Resources Management program at Western Carolina University recently completed Levels 1 and 2 of the Game Of Logging training at the historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The students were all participants in WCU’s Sustainable Forestry Internship Program, which is a program designed to educate students in the application of sustainable forest management in the southern Appalachians. This is a very hands-on program where students “learn by doing”. The interns are employed year round and gain experience in all aspects of forest management by assisting local landowners with the management of their property. These students entered into the GOL training fully aware that loggers play a critical role in successful forest management since it is loggers who ultimately implement many management practices. As such, it is important for foresters to be aware of the basic techniques required to directionally fell, limb, and buck trees in a safe and efficient manner. It is equally important that foresters understand other challenges and concerns faced by loggers so that foresters and loggers can work in partnership to do what is best for the timber stand, the landowner, and each other.

The GOL training was conducted by certified instructor David Sienko of Hallstead, PA. Sienko is a professional logger who is highly regarded for the quality of his work. Because of his skill and reputation, Sienko was recruited from Pennsylvania to selectively harvest more than 1 million board feet of timber at the Biltmore Estate – one of the most visited tourist attractions in the region. The training was conducted within the actual sale unit using trees that had been marked for harvest. Using this site provided an excellent opportunity to teach the concepts of tree-felling techniques within the context of good forest stewardship. For the most part, the students had minimal experience in the use of chain saws. Some had never held one, and none had ever felled a tree – yet here they were, preparing to thin a mixed hardwood stand that contained trees more100 years old and up to 50 inches in diameter.

The training went exceedingly well. All of the students were able to fell and buck several trees. The highlight of the session was probably experienced by Derren Rosbach who came into the training having never felled a tree. On the afternoon of the first day, Sienko directed him to a 39-inch yellow poplar that had been marked for removal. Suddenly, all of the lessons and challenges of the course came into play. Here was a large, slowly growing poplar that was overtopping several younger, potentially more vigorously growing oak and cherry. Silviculturally it was clear that the poplar should come out in order to release the other trees. However, if Rosbach felled the poplar in the direction of the lean, it would come down on top of the trees he was trying to release. Rosbach sized up the situation and noticed there was a hole where the tree could fall that would cause minimal damage to the stand – the only catch was that this left him with about 4 feet of back lean. Undeterred Rosback set his target stake in the center of the hole, and then under the watchful eye of Sienko, he calmly formed his hinge, completed his back cuts, and began driving his wedges. The other students kept their eyes on the large crown as it inched its way against the lean with each drive of wedges. Cheers went up as the crown went passed the point of no return, easing its way through the residual trees and driving the target stake deep into the ground.

Seconds later, the logger and the forester shook hands on a job well done, and the students gathered around the stump to consider what might have been. A poorly trained forester and a poorly trained logger may have both believed that this poplar could only be felled on top of the younger oak and cherry beneath it. If this was the case, the forester may have chosen not to mark this tree for removal – leaving it to suppress the trees below it. Or, perhaps he would have marked it and accepted the damage that its removal would cause. Neither of these scenarios reflect what would be best for the stand, the landowner, the forester, or the logger.

This GOL training session was instrumental in reinforcing to this group of future foresters that good forestry requires good logging. These 6 students drove home with a keen awareness that knowledgeable foresters working in partnership with skilled loggers make a necessary and powerful team to promote sound, sustainable forest management in the mountains of western North Carolina.