Smallscale Woodland Felling

Course fee: £130 Tutor: Dave Jackson

This one day course will teach you how to fell small trees by hand and how to process them ready for use as firewood, craft material and or brash.

Trees need to be felled to keep the woodland in a healthy state and to allow other trees to grow to their full capacity. It also allows light onto the woodland floor, creating an environment for other flora and fauna to thrive.

You will be using traditional woodland tools such as a bowsaw, axe, felling lever and rope to fell the trees along with a billhook, pruning saw and loppers to process the wood.

You will learn practical tips and techniques on:

• Identifying  which trees are safe and suitable to cut down for various needs
• using hand tools safely and effectively (saws axes, billhooks, brashing hooks, pole saw  and loppers)
• location of safe zones  and different types of cuts to use on a tree when felling depending on size and state of the tree
• processing the wood by using a pruning saw and bow saw to cut into manageable sizes and a billhook to sned (take the smaller branches off)
• the different types of woods and their uses
• PPE (personal protective equipment) selection and use
• health and  safety related to woodland work

At Ecclesall Woods we pride ourselves on the high quality teaching from our tutors  and  our low class numbers (max 5 for most classes)  and  a number of our courses also have an assistant.

We have found that smaller class sizes are more productive, un-rushed  and  allow students to learn more

You will need to wear suitable clothing and footwear for working outdoors in this season. Steel toe cap boots would be advantageous if you have them, but are not essential. Please note this course will require a high level of manual dexterity on your fingers and is physically demanding.