The Outdoor Women’s Program (OWP), hosted and organized by the Alberta Hunter’s Education Instructor’s Association (A.H.E.I.A), celebrated it’s 30th anniversary at Alford Lake Conservation Centre August 7-11, 2024.

Arboriculture Canada Training & Education (ACTE) has donated time and equipment to this event since 2017. Charlene Scott of ACTE and Karman Dilisio from Olds College taught Basic Chainsaw Skills at the event.

This year saw 130 women over four days take part in a multitude of outdoor activities. The activities included: archery, fly fishing, fly tying, outdoor wilderness cooking, leather bag making, sausage making, rifles, shot gun shooting, education on hunting and fishing, even field dressing of a deer and a road killed black bear, plus many more. We presented basic chainsaw skills, and new this year due to participants’ request, an evening session on chainsaw maintenance.

The 3-hour chainsaw sessions, facilitated by ACTE, saw 35 newer chainsaw users, learn competent handling, operation, and safety features of the chainsaw. Participants were keen to learn how to properly use this tool to harvest and process firewood for their home wood stoves or camping trips.

Attendees had the chance to operate Stihl’s battery and gas-powered chainsaws courtesy of ACTE and Olds College. Many were excited to try both options and could see the benefits of each choice after getting to try both.

Some of the participants enjoyed the ease of using the battery powered saw that requires no pull starting, has quieter operation and does not require fuel. Others found the power of the gas-powered saw more beneficial and got used to starting it after being shown the best techniques.

Dressed in full personal protective apparel (PPA) and looking good, the ladies cut cookies (small slices of wood a few inches thick) from logs propped on sawhorses to get the feel for the reactive forces.

This allowed them to establish and practice appropriate grip, proper hand placement with wrapped thumbs, and a comfortable strong stance using their body positioning to support the weight of the saw.

Instruction and demonstration on the topic of compression and tension in wood fibres was introduced next.

This allowed the participants to try properly cutting larger pieces using correct matching cuts; cutting first partway through the compression side and finishing the cut by matching the kerf from the tension side.

This technique avoids pinching the chain and therefore avoiding rotational kickback (a potentially dangerous reactive force).

Lastly, bucking on the ground was demonstrated showing the suitable way to cut logs into firewood length without grounding the saw. As well as incorporating the use of wedges as an additional inexpensive tool for the toolbox.

Chainsaw design and engineering continues to amaze me. Getting the opportunity to share the knowledge of such a fascinating and exciting tool with others is a rewarding experience. It was great to have a good-sized crowd for our chainsaw maintenance session where attendees learned the basic daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance they should perform on their chainsaws to keep them running effectively and safely.

Audience members remarked how they could now save on many trips and money, by performing their own basic chainsaw maintenance instead of taking their saws to a mechanic.

ACTE looks forward to continuing to be a part of AHEIA’s OWP for years to come. Thank you to the great group of organizers and volunteers for putting on a great event and to the ladies who came out to learn a few new skills. It was a pleasure and an honor to be a part of the initiative to create a safe and welcoming environment for women to learn new outdoor skills.

For more information on how to attend or volunteer for the AHEIA Outdoor Women’s Program please visit Outdoor Women’s Program at: https://aheia.com