Wildland Fire Chain Saw Glossary
Pre-course Work
FEBRUARY, 2004
NFES 2644
Safety. The condition of being safe from undergoing or causing
hurt, injury or loss. To protect against failure, breakage or accident.
Safety Container. As defined by NFPA 30, an approved container
of not more than a 5 gallon (18.9L) capacity having a spring-closing lid
and spout cover and designed so that it safely relieves internal pressure
when subjected to fire exposure.
Safety Glasses. A type of glass or plastic lens that will not
shatter when broken or compromised.
Sapling. A small diameter tree under 4 inches DBH.
Sapwood. The outer layers of wood which, in the growing tree,
contain living cells and reserve material.
Sawyer. A person employed in limbing, bucking and falling trees
in non-complex situations.
School-Marm. Natural dividing of a tree or log into two or more
sections, and/or division of its top into two or more sections.
Side Bind. One of the five basic tree positions commonly encountered
while bucking. A tree in a side bind situation is compressed on one side
and tensioned on the other.
Side-Boring Backcut. Side-boring is a technique for establishing
the amount of holding wood required to fall a tree. The guide bar tip
is plunged into the tree behind the hinge wood above the undercut (face)
to establish the back cut.
Side Lean. Side lean is the lean determined from the
intended felling direction.
Side-Notching Backcut. Intentional alteration of the standard
backcutting procedure to prevent loss of control and/or barber-chairing.
This advanced skill method reduces the amount of holding wood remaining
to be cut by cutting each side prior to the final across-the-back severing.
Sit-Back. Refers to a tree that settles back on the stump closing
the kerf of the backcut. Generally a result of improper determination
of the tree's forward lean and/or of wind, failure to place a wedge in
the backcut.
Slabbing. Often caused by improper technique and/or sequence of
bucking cuts which result in a lateral split of a log.
Slashing. The cutting and piling of small diameter young trees
or brush.
Slope. The increase or decrease in altitude over a horizontal
distance expressed in percentage.
Sloping Undercut (face) Cut. The second of the two cuts required
to undercut (face) a tree. It must be angled sufficiently to allow a wide-mouthed
undercut (45°) opening.
Snag. Any standing dead tree or remaining standing
portion thereof.
Sound. Descriptor used in tree felling, especially snags, in reference
to the presence of rot in the standing tree.
Sounding. Using the head of the falling axe to strike the tree
to determine its soundness.
Spike Top. Live tree that has a dead barkless top.
Spring Pole. A limb or sapling that is bent under a fallen tree.
Usually under great amounts of pressure (tension) and is considered potentially
dangerous until correctly relieved.
Staub. A short length of cut branch wood extending from the bole
or the ground. Staubs create tripping and injury hazards.
Strip. Area allotted to each sawyer or faller. Typically used
in interior logging and leap-frogging fireline saw teams.
Stump Shot. The height difference between the horizontal cut of
the undercut (face, or notch) and the backcut. The difference in height
establishes an anti-kick back step that will prevent a tree from jumping
back over the stump toward the faller. It is the facecut side of the holding
wood.
Swamper (or puller). Assistant to saw operator who carries fuel
and tools, also engaged to move cut material such as brush or other objects.
Swamp Out. To clean out brush and other material around the base
of trees and where trees are to be bucked prior to felling or bucking
as protection against saw kickback and to provide safe footing and escape
routes.
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