Nine New PATC Crosscut Sawyers Certified in September
By Paul Boisen and Doug Dembling
“PATC at its best. Passing on field knowledge to a new crew of sawyers and doing it in a way that builds camaraderie and team spirit!”
That’s how Martin Mühleisen described the crosscut saw and axe training and certification course held by the DC Rock Creek Park District September 20-21, 2025. This training was held to increase the skills and abilities of district trail maintainers. PATC maintainers routinely clear tree blowdown from the park’s 30+ miles of trails.
Martin was one of nine participants in the two-day training. The first day’s classroom session was held at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church. The training used the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) “Developing Thinking Sawyers” curriculum for crosscut sawyer certification.
This was followed by a day of field testing and evaluation on the Glover Archbold Trail in Rock Creek Park. Past storms had felled numerous trees in the area providing ample opportunities for practicing sawing and axe skills and then having those skills evaluated.
Paul Boisen, PATC C Level Sawyer, assisted by Doug Dembling, PATC B Level Sawyer, trained and evaluated the participants. Prior to the training the participants reviewed four pre-work modules. The classroom session covered the mandatory modules on saw operations, crosscut basics, limbing/bucking, axe use and maintenance, and hung-up trees.
Participants were trained to “buck” fallen trees off of trails. The techniques taught in the course are motivated by safety and utilize the Objectives/Hazards/Leans & Binds/Escape paths/Cut plan (OHLEC) process:
- Determining the objective(s) in bucking the downed tree;
- Understanding the hazards that may be present in the work area (Look up, Look Down, Look All Around);
- Detecting and understanding the leans and binds, the tension and compression in fallen trees;
- Determining the best escape path(s) to use if the sawyer needs to move away quickly from the cutting area;
- Determining the cut plan - figuring out the different angles and deciding the best sequences of cuts to clear the blowdown. This includes predicting where cut pieces will move upon separation, and maintaining clear communication between team members.
In addition to crosscut saw certification, sawyers can get USFS chainsaw certification. Each type of tool brings its own challenges.
Crosscut sawyers carry a lighter load of tools and have the advantage of hearing both their crewmates' voices and the creak of the wood as they work, but each cut takes more time than a chainsaw. Crosscut sawyers, therefore, tend to make fewer cuts and then have larger pieces of wood to move off the trail.
Chain sawyers can make multiple cuts quickly to reduce a fallen tree into small pieces, but they have to carry heavier equipment on the trail.
Levels of certification for both chainsaw and crosscut saw are A (apprentice, developing skills), B (crew leader, skilled with tools and communication), and C (coach, demonstrated ability to train and certify As and Bs).
The Rock Creek Park training has a back story with PATC's North River (NR) District.
The NR district contains the USFS Ramsey's Draft Wilderness, in which chainsaws may not be used. For this reason, NR has been holding training and certification events to support a local cadre of crosscut sawyers on the Shenandoah Mountain Crew. Initially this training depended on C sawyers from the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS).
In order to strengthen PATC’s training program, NR Co-District Manager Lynn Cameron recruited Paul Boisen, one of the local C Level Sawyers, to certify PATC sawyers. Since then Paul has certified 31 sawyers at PATC, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Carolina Mountain Club, USFS and SAWS events in Virginia and North Carolina, before coming to the D.C. area to carry out the Rock Creek Park certification event.
Congratulations to the newly certified sawyers - six A-bucking sawyers and three B-bucking sawyers: Allison Kirsch, Darob Malek-Madani, Don Looney, Leo Juska, Lisa Frehill, Martin Mühleisen, Mitch Baer, Natalie Howe, and Josh Wolny!
As Darob remarked,
“I had a great experience and learned a lot. I can't wait to get back on the trail and use some new skills and I now have some big new ideas for my tool list for Santa.”
