The Ohio Forestry Association, Inc. (OFA) introduced its Chainsaw Safety Awareness that Works (CSAW) program in 2008. Since then over 500 people have participated in the program and become educated on chainsaw safety and operation. The program meets OSHA Logging Standard requirements and is designed to provide quality chainsaw safety education for anyone operating a chainsaw.

CSAW offers three classes which can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different groups. Whether its for professional loggers, land owners, city/county workers, emergency response teams, volunteers, etc. CSAW offers a class to meet everyone's needs.

CSAW Level 1 - A full 8 hour class with a lecture portion in the morning and a hands-on portion in the afternoon. This class focuses on personal protective equipment (PPE), safety features of the chainsaw head, five point safety check, maintenance of the power head and guide bar, components of the saw tooth, angles and their functions, proper filing, and the reactive forces of the chain and guide bar. The field section covers benefits of open-face felling, benefits of using a hinge & bore method, five step pre-felling plan, tree felling demonstration, and participant tree felling. In this course each participant will fell a tree under the guidance of an instructor.

CSAW Level 2 - A full 8 hour class with a lecture portion in the morning and a hands-on portion in the afternoon. The primary focus of Level 2 is to advance the skills participants were taught in level 1 by demonstrating how to safely limb and buck felled timber. This class often involves dealing with the safety hazards that are created when a tree is felled, such as spring poles.

CSAW Custom - A 4 hour class designed to cover the same indoor lecture topics as Level 1 but not as indepth on each topic. In this class each participant will not fell a tree, however each participant will use a chainsaw to cut an already downed tree in order to show the ability to handle the saw. This class is geared toward landowners, volunteers and people who need the skills to saw felled trees. CSAW Custom can be tailored to a specific group's needs. This class meets the requirements to operate a chainsaw as a volunteer on Ohio State Forest Lands.

UPCOMING CSAW CLASSES:

October 25, 2013 - Scioto Trail State Forest, Chillicothe, OH

CSAW Brochure