If a tree falling course were held in a Lac La Biche forest would anyone hear it? The answer is yes, and they’d hear from coast-to-coast. Last week, Lac La Biche was home to some of the best tree fallers in the country as 15 students and six instructors took to the northern Alberta bush to train for the prestigious Qualified Supervisor Trainer (QST) course for tree-logging in the oil and gas industry.
Men came as far as Aspen Cove, Newfoundland and Nanaimo B.C. to take part in this nine-day training course that includes two days in the classroom and seven days living amongst the trees. All for the purpose of qualifying for their certification course to become a supervisor, responsible for others.
For these 15 individuals, tree falling is more of an art form than simply using a chainsaw to get some firewood. Intricate cuts and precise movements all amount to felling Alberta’s mammoth trees to clear roadways and sites for the thriving oil and gas industry.
“We only accept the best of the best in the falling business for this course,” said Dale Crossland, a certified QST trainer. “In order to even be chosen to take this class you need to have a 90 per cent on a required falling entrance exam.”
And if it wasn’t hard enough just to get into the course, it costs $5,000 plus room and board, and the fallers need to score a 95 per cent on their final exam session to become a certified QST.
“We train them to see and catch the hazards in the forest so that when they become certified QSTs they can then do the same to other fallers,” said QST lead trainer Richard Banner. “This is a course designed as a train the trainer program, to get these fallers ready for an evaluation period that will have one of the experienced QST’s score the student on his evaluation of six different fallers.”
The Lac La Biche training course just off highway 55 and Range Road 151 will be the new home for this course in northern Alberta, and will continue to run the training classes as need arises in the oil and gas industry.
“We were able to get the designation to host this course here thanks to Forestry and SRD,” Crossland said. “It’s really neat to have such a prestigious course that brings guys from all over Canada to Lac La Biche.”
If the 15 experienced fallers pass this QST course, they will then be able to join an exclusive group of only 24 other certified members in the nation that can monitor and evaluate other fallers and keep the vital logging portion of oil and gas industry safe across Canada.
“Since adopting this QST certified training across Canada in 2005, we have had no deaths or serious accidents with trees or chainsaws in the oil and gas industry,” Banner said. “This is a standard that is working.”
The program was designed in partnership with ENFORM, a safety association for Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry. And the standard these participants are working from is a 23-page document that covers everything from protective equipment to hazard assessment.
“It’s all about consistency,” Banner said. “This is a program that outlines everything a faller needs to know to be safe in his workplace.”
The program also benefits local organizations. All the wood cut during the training course will be donated to the “Kids Are Worth It” school program and the Hope Haven Women’s Shelter to use in fundraising efforts.
“If we can find a way to give back to the community, that becomes a real win-win situation for all of us,” Crossland said.
