I don't know. I don't think we will be seeing any new volunteers this year anyway. The work's too hard, I guess. At any rate, I think those who need to know are already in the loop.
O.K. I'll bite. What's involved with a "Saw Cert. Class"? Is this required to be an official volunteer or is it o.k. to go cut some stuff on your own on a trail without the cert?
The Cert is required when using a chain saw or crosscut (large). Class is a day long event, morning class, afternoon everyone runs up to the woods and saws. FS staff observe, comment, and decide what level to certify.
It is not necessary to Cert to have a Volunteer Agreement. Agreement volunteers are insured, receive a one year trail pass after 16 hours contribution, and are provided some equipment.
You left out the part about having the tracking and "discipline" chip implanted in the left thigh muscle and the bar code tattoo on the back of the neck (for inventory purposes).
And we get all the cheap beer we want, provided we buy it, and transport and saws and saw gas and oil and chains and wedges and axes and chaps and boots and tin pants and coats and files and Pulaskis and McLeods and shovels and food and (non beer) drink, ourselves!
The chip and the tattoo are to get us on track for the government's
paperless agenda as well as keeping track of rogue volunteers who
wander around aimlessly searching for the "lost trails' of the Clackamas high country.
The carrying of all the gear and more importantly the use of such
gear in the maintenance of the district's trails gives not only a
lean physique to die for, but the satisfaction of knowing that we are continuing the legacy of those who built the trails. Not to
mention as an added bonus, we will be able to use the same tools as
they did a hundred years ago (i.e. crosscut saws and axes) in the
new wilderness areas of our district, soon to be designated by our
politicians in the east. It is all 'for the greater good', a quote
a read somewhere, but can't recollect from where.