This week in the VFC, all the members received their sawyer certifications! As with all training, we started in the class room for long hours of in depth professional training before we got outside and felled a few trees each. During the training, we had an intense hailstorm which delayed two of the crew members from getting certified. The storm let up the next day, and Team 1 had 6 certified sawyers! The crew members all received the A level certification, which is the most basic level of sawyer on a fire crew. Kip, however, received his B level sawyer, which is the intermediate level, so we are all very proud of him for his efforts and hard work! The following week was the first full week that the crew was not in a training environment. We participated in drills with the Mystic Ranger District staff, including water pumping drills and a mock fire hose lay drill. There was a fire in the district, but unfortunately for us, we do not have our red cards in hand, and thus we cannot accompany the fire dept on a non-training fire. So we keep our heads held high and wait for our cards to come in so we can get out there on the front lines. We also got to attend a class on rare plants in the Black Hills. The class was very informative and all members enjoyed the class. We finished out the week with a PT hike in Custer State Park.
