S-212 Chainsaw Felling Course at Radnor Lake State Natural Area (February 11th thru 13th, 2020)

A 3-day S-212 chainsaw operations course was recently held on February 11th thru 13th at Radnor Lake State Natural Area for Tennessee State Parks, Tennessee Division of Natural Areas and Tennessee Division of Forestry Personnel. This training builds upon our previous training held at Radnor Lake the past 16+ years and ensures that all of our Radnor Lake Ranger Staff are S-212 felling certified.
This course and a variety of courses are developed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) headquartered in Boise, Idaho which partners with agencies across the nation both federal, state, and local to respond to unplanned but expected incidents such as wildfire, storms, floods, as well as daily duties of fire, forestry, park, wildlife, and other agencies.
The training and skills covered in this S-212 chainsaw operation course are important to a number of activities at Radnor Lake State Natural Area, especially trail development and maintenance which require a lot of cutting of both down and standing trees and brush on an annual basis. Participants of this course are also taught an emergency medical response review by Standing Stone Park Manager Chris Cole to prevent/respond to medical emergencies frequently associated with chainsaw injuries.
Simultaneously the cutting and control of invasive-exotic invasive trees and plants is a high priority at Radnor Lake as these species multiply rapidly and out compete the native desirable vegetation. Some of the native trees to be helped and restored from the removal of invasive-exotic plants during this 3- day training was formerly more common to the area like walnut, white and red oaks, poplar (the state tree). This course is taught primarily in the Hall Farm portion of Radnor Lake which is the centerpiece of our current native grasslands restoration efforts as well in our efforts to restore 40+ acres of native grasslands back to the natural area to sustain ground nesting bird habitat and butterfly species dependent upon these areas for survival.
Most importantly, this training raises the skill, efficiency and safety levels for all chainsaw operators working on Tennessee State Forests, Tennessee State Parks and Tennessee State Natural Areas.
This 3-day training was made possible thanks to the partnership between Friends of Radnor Lake, Tennessee Division of Forestry, Tennessee Division of Natural Areas and Tennessee State Parks with 16 participants from TDF, TDNA and TSP receiving this training from Instructor Mike Huddleston (consulting forester / retired TN division of forestry).
Special thanks to Mike Huddleston (Instructor), Robin Bible (Tennessee Division of Forestry), Jeff Piatt (Tennessee Division of Forestry), Michael Holder (Tennessee Division of Forestry), Shane Petty (Tennessee State Parks), Lori Jett (Tennessee State Parks), Tina Corkum (Friends of Radnor Lake), Park Manager Chris Cole (Standing Stone State Park Manager/EMT-P), Lyndy Maness and the park staff at Radnor Lake for all of their help to make this training possible.
All of the participants from all 4 agencies working together for this annual training along with the Radnor Lake Park Staff would like to pass along their thanks to Friends of Radnor Lake for their behind the scenes support of this training and hospitality over this past week!