Quietly, there is a small group of Dartmouth students cutting down the lone pines of New Hampshire.
Well, not exactly, but there is a club that prides itself on splitting wood, revving up chainsaws and doing other things that demonstrate man's power over a helpless log. This group is the Dartmouth forestry team, a student-run organization that teaches anyone how to chop wood just like the pros in the Great Outdoor Games.
The forestry team has its origins in a competition created in 1947 by C. Ross McKenney, who built Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, and Bill Rhodes from Kimball Union Academy. Seeing that basic woodworking skills were being lost and forgotten in the shadow of modernization, the two set out to create a contest in order to showcase and preserve the fading craft. Teams from Dartmouth, KUA, and Williams came to Hanover and participated in a series of forestry events on the Green in 1947 in the first Woodsmen's Weekend at Dartmouth.
The forestry team is officially a part of the Dartmouth Outing Club's Cabin and Trail division and is completely student-run, but it technically does not have club team status. Membership is open to anyone who wishes to participate, contrary to a mock announcement on the team's website stating, "We won't take just anyone on the team. There is a minimum biceps measurement of 37" (25" for the guys) as well as a rigorous psychological exam to be sure the person can handle the intense pressure of intercollegiate woodsmen's competition."
Head coach Ben Honig '05, a graduate student at Thayer Engineering School, recalled that it only took one trip to practice to start him getting involved with the club. "I went out my freshman fall, starting throwing an axe and pretty much got hooked on it."
At their practice facility near the cross-country ski center at Oak Hill, the squad hones its skills through a variety of activities aimed at mimicking events encountered in official competition. As Honig described it, the team is doing nothing more than just trying to have some fun while imparting the fundamentals of outdoor events to old and new members alike.
"We basically just go out and set all these events up," he said. "There's no real formal training program, and they practice the events they want to compete in. We're not going out for runs at six o'clock in the morning or congregating in the weight room."
The forestry team traveled to Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSCA) this past weekend for its 60th annual Spring Meet, taking on nine other schools that each brought two or three six man, and woman, teams. Results were not posted before press time, but Honig conceded that Dartmouth "doesn't really have a powerhouse team." He predicted an eighth or ninth place finish for the Big Green behind perennial powers Finger Lakes Community College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, University of Maine at Orono, and NSAC.
Squads compete in 19 different events, ranging from testing the participant's lumber cutting skills to rowing in canoeing events. Some of the more popular include the axe throw, pole climb, and single buck, in which the participant attacks a 20 inch diameter log with a six-foot cross-cut saw. The underhand chop, where participants stand on top of a piece of log and cut it out from under themselves, is perennially popular, and is the standing block, in which the competitor stands aside an upright log and chops it in half.
Honig, however, singled out disk-stacking as one of the "coolest" competitions in the entire field. One of several events involving chainsaws, contestant must slice cross sections of a small log, keeping the top disks on the pile as the bottom disks are being cut. A good stacker can balance 16-17 disks before running out of wood.
One of the most hotly contested and well attended events, however, is one you might not expect. The fire start, along with the standing block, consistently draw big crowds. "They're two of the more skilled events," Honig said. "The people who compete in those events are devoting the time to really learn this stuff. To watch the really good guys is really exciting, and also doing it is really exciting"
While Dartmouth does not have any All-American choppers on its squad -- one member of the Class of 1974 went on to the professional circuit -- several upperclassmen have created a nucleus of skilled woodsmen on the team. These include single buck specialist Chris Farmer '08 and Alison Crocker '06, an adept pole climber and Dartmouth's resident Rhodes Scholar.
There are drawbacks to competing with materials that come from straight out of the woods, for no two trees are alike according to Honig. "It's really hard to tell who's going to be really good on a given day because a lot of the events aren't standardized. You can get one type of wood one day and another type of wood another day," he said.
However you slice it, the experience is all about having a good time, win or lose, for the Dartmouth forestry team. "We're not usually looking to win, we're looking to have fun," Honig said.
In the words of emeritus competitor David Hastings '00, "Half the fun of a forestry meet lies in cheering on your team-mates, in screaming yourself hoarse to encourage someone to keep going even though their arms burn and tremble. 'You're not tired!' and 'Breathe!' are some of the commands that burst forth from the lips of your comrades as you stand on top of an eight-inch-thick block of poplar thinking you will never break through. Then your axe severs the last fibers and you collapse, surrounded by a whooping and hooting circle of friends."
