Thread: chainsaws in public

Originally Posted by Barterbuilt

Power just back on since Friday 2pm... missed the WWF.

Which brings me to the question of chainsaws in public.
There are so many big trees down around the place.

Whilst I'm not about to cut loose around town with the chainsaw, I'd like to know what is involved.....
Not overly interested in the council or legal side of things at this stage, just the chainsaw side.
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Bit unsure what you are driving at here, surely the chainsaw side is up to you?

Chainsaws are an excellent tool for pacifying the public. Allow me to explain.
Some years ago, while logging up on the headwaters of the Manning river, we had a large Bluegum go down across the public road that ran through the property. The owner asked if I could cut it up, take what I could use and he would clear the rest with the tractor bucket. Now this tree was 1.3m at breast height-no sapling- so I set into it with my trusty 099 Stihl. Next thing, a couple of young birds in a suzuki 4x4 with an open top come flying along and skid to a stop, almost with the bullbar against my bum. The driver sits there hand on horn with no let up. By this time I am halfway through the log with a full bar and full throttle. I raise the heel of the saw and the en-sewing stream of sawdust fills the suzuki in no time. Driver removes hand from horn, reverses off my bum, does a three point turn and disappears back in the direction from whence they came.

This happened to me while chainsaw milling at the tree loppers yard in 2008.

Had a bit of excitement today when a nearby (200 m!) angry and very homeowner came to complain about the chainsaw noise. The complainant didn't have a leg to stand on because the yard is on industrial land and we were operating within acceptable times. If he had been half reasonable we would have tried to accommodate his request but he was abusive and threatening and yard owner Jeff and the lads (mostly rugby players) "assisted him from the property". Then he stood outside the fence yelling abuse and threatening to burn the yard down. When he finally left a couple of the lads quietly followed him back to his place to find out where he lived and knocked on his door and introduced themselves just to let him know they knew where he lived. The yard owner also reported the threat to the cops who were very happy to pay the complainant a visit and tell him that they would be paying him a visit after the occurrence of any fires in the area - to which he gave the cop an earful as well. Meanwhile I kept milling. After the cops had paid their visit they called the yard owner back. The yard owner said I had just finished milling for the day and apparently the policeman said, "so soon? too bad, couldn't we keep it up for a little longer?"

Sorry, re read the post and maybe didn't make it too clear.
There are currently dozens of big trees down all over town.
Some are in peoples front gardens but some are smack in the middle of public places.
Surely I can't just rock up, fire up a chainsaw and start hacking away.
I know several of the arborists in town who will undoubtably receive a phone call tomorrow morning to come and clean up the trees.
Bang straight into the chippers. Or chopped into managable cookies and dumped. Seems to be a waste.
Is there any sort of licence needed to operate a chainsaw in this way.
In particular there are 3 big blackbutts at least 1.3 dia.
Maybe I need to be an arborist?

Thanks

You can't just turn up and start hacking into a tree on public land. The shire or council will have a preferred contractor they call to do that. If you do the contractors job he's gonna get because he's not getting paid. If you approach your council they may go tricky and ask to see you CS competency ticket or your public liability insurance- that's so they are covered if something goes wrong. My guess is it will depend on how quickly they want things tidied up.

Hey Barterbuilt,

Maybe a call to the Arborist, and see if you can help, you may want to have a plan on how you are going to get YOUR bits home if go are planing on getting too carried away, also you may want to check if you need any paperwork to do what you are wanting to do (go into the public domain)

I have been trained by the NSW Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade on Chainsaw use and it doesn't cut the mustard over here, yet. (No pun intended, much)

HazzaB

That's more along the lines I was thinking of. A CS competency ticket, have to look into that.
I am friendly with a couple of the local arborists and I get logs delivered to my yard, but only when it's convenient for them.
You should hear the stories of what gets chipped. Sally wattle, forest red gum, rosewood, camphours and many more.
One has a chipper that can eat 24" logs, and it happens on a daily basis. Sometimes he has to split them just to get them in the chipper.
I found a bloke with a crane truck that charges $75 an hour, so picking up logs is the easy bit.
Just seems to me to be an utter waste of top quality timber, especially with the unusually large amount of trees that came down in the storms of last week.
The local sawmills are not interested in these one offs, so I see a niche that needs to be filled. Must have a serious chat with the arbotists.
Got a new chainsaw and a big ass bandsaw now, so I''l see what I can do

The two young fellas next door are right into the Local Bush Fire brigade. One has been the Captain for a couple of years. To be on the Volunteer Brigade you have to be trained and carry the appropriate certificates to be involved. Gone are the days when anyone could turn up to lend a hand.
There was a lot of small fires one Christmas time and so all the brigades were busy for weeks off and on. Our fellas seemed to be in good shape so they offered their services to the Brigade of a neighbouring town. No problem. They turned up with the Fire truck and blokes to operate it and were given directions to go and help with a fire that was escalating. So they did. The fire needed to be attacked from a track with a tree across a track that they couldn't get around. They went back to the base and told the fellow in charge about the tree and the urgent need for a chainsaw and operator to cut it. "Can't you go round it?" was the question from the man in charge. NO!!he asked them if they had a saw. Yes. Apparently when you go into some other brigades area you are only permitted to cut trees with a CS operated by that brigades man. They told the man in charge that to which he replied "Can't you cut it out of the way...I have the Certificate but I don't like chainsaws". DERRR! how can he have the certificate when he didn't feel comfortable using one.
I reckoned that the man in charge could be an accident waiting to happen
I rang around some local Arborists were not the least bit interested in me taking away suitable logs. They would only chip the lot. Yes what a waste

Originally Posted by Barterbuilt

That's more along the lines I was thinking of. A CS competency ticket, have to look into that.

I got myself a ticket about years ago through a local technical college that put me onto one of those private training provider.
It's called a "Certificate of Competency" CHAINSAW OPERATOR. It was a one day course that cost a couple of hundred dollars.
I didn't learn anything significant and could have given the course myself. I've never used the ticket but am still glad I have it.

Originally Posted by Barterbuilt

Must have a serious chat with the arbotists.

Absolutely! Just follow them around town - they'll still get the fee for disposal, you can prolly get what you want without having to cut it up. Win - win.

Around here they seem to cut up fallen trees to get them off the road/out of the way then then leave them a couple of weeks for the fire wood mob and their chainsaws to have a scavenge before sending in the chipers. I don, know if it's official or just how it happens.
Regards