2 4 F alling T ec hniques There are six fundamental st eps t o f ollo w in falling timber 1 A ccurat ely judge the lean of the tree 2 Plan an e v acuation r out e 3 Clear the gr ound surr ounding the tree and along the escape r out e 4 Alw a ys l ook abo v e f or f alling debris 5 T ak e s pecial care in making a pr oper under cut and lea v e an adeq uat e hinge of w ood t o maintain contr ol of f alling direction 6 Ensure that no one is in the immediat e area andor that the y are a w are of y our activity Operation Saf e ty Guidelines W or kSaf eBC supplies a Chainsa w Saf e ty br ochure and BC F aller T raining S tandar ds The most common injur y relat ed t o c hainsa w operation is kic k bac k This occur s when the operat or momentarily loses contr ol of the sa w resulting in the blade bouncing bac k of f the log int o the operat ors nec k face or leg Kickback can be a v oided b y no t w or king in an a wkw ar d position ie standing t oo f ar a w a y w or k ing of f balance or w or king with poor f oo ting Pr oper care must also be tak en while cutting branches brush or windf all slightly abo v e gr ound le v el where hidden obstructions on the opposit e side of the log ma y cause the tip of the bar t o kickback thr ough the cut P er haps the most im por tant aspect in the pre v ention of kickback is that great care be tak en t o shar pen the chain pr operly and t o maintain the razor shar p cutting edge including height of rak er s If the chain is dull y ou must e x er t great pressure thereb y e xposing y our self t o str onger than normal kickback f or ces