Conservation Skills Training Returns to Bear Brook – April 29th

Visitors to the park may soon believe they're seeing ghosts of the CCC in Bear Brook State Park.

Each year, skills trainers from across the conservation arena are invited to share their knowledge and techniques with the corps, ranging from rustic timber skills older than the trees to newer innovations like the grip hoist, a hand operated winch capable of lifting and moving massive boulders like they were skipping stones.

This season, we will kick off with an introduction to the basics of mechanical advantage - using simple machines to accomplish amazing tasks. These concepts will develop into the intricacies of overhead rigging, including the topics of working load limits, deflection, and shock loading. Using the grip hoist, a spool of wire rope, and an assortment of blocks, shackles and webbing, members will be able to transport materials like rock, timber or buckets of gravel hundreds of feet without touching the ground. This saves the ground below from being trampled underfoot, and protects the members from musculoskeletal injuries associated with bending and lifting.

In May, we will be joined by our friends from Northeast Woodland Training (NEWT), who will teach the Game of Logging, a chainsaw safety course geared specifically towards trail maintenance. The Game of Logging was conceived by Soren Eriksson, a Swedish logger who wished to develop a method to efficiently cut timber all day and still have enough energy in the evenings to pursue his other passion: boxing. While our members will hopefully not be engaging in fisticuffs, they will still have the know-how to spend a day prepping a timber bridge safely and efficiently, and still have what it takes to cook a hearty meal, and not fall asleep face down in it.

The final training installment comes on the week of June 15th. Since 1985, SCA has been the premier organization offering Conservation Work Skills Training as a method of handing down the skills and techniques of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Three instructors, each a Bear Brook alumni and professional trail builder, will converge to teach tread and drainage skills, rustic timber construction, building with rock, new trail survey, design and implementation, revegetation, crosscut saw use, and more.

Special thanks to all our trainers, including Erik Weil, Erin Amadon, Jed Talbot, Dave Birdsall, Al Sands and Nate Fice. Read more about the Game of Logging and NEWT at http://www.woodlandtraining.com/