The great news is there are now two potential sources of funding for your training.

Forestry and Arboriculture Training Fund – now open and available for course between 1st October 2023 and March 2025

Examples of forestry short training courses that will be available include coppicing, chainsaw maintenance, managing woodland, planning and planting a new woodland, to marketing and selling timber. New to this round of funding will be short courses in arboriculture such as aerial tree pruning, branch removal and crown reduction, as well as assisted felling and tree surveying.

See how to apply and link to application form here>>

Details and Guidance on the Government website here>>

Please note that you must obtain approval for funding BEFORE you book or attend a TKF training course.

 

ELCAS Funding for Service Leavers

99% success rated from feedback provided to ELCAS!! Delivered together over a 4 week period, our courses are ideally suited for the ‘Learning Purpose’ of becoming a Tree Surgeon. Our delivery is specifically designed for service leavers to meet the requirements of the ELCAS funding scheme.

These course are open to anyone interested in Fast Track Tree Surgery Course. please visit Service Leavers page or contact the office for more information.

Find out more about Training for Service Leavers

Last year TKF Training received an international request from Uganda for help with trees that were blocking road at the hands of elephants! The proud owner of TKF responded and here is Tim’s account of the trip and training provided:

Chainsaw Training In Uganda from Nick Wilcox-Brown on Vimeo.

“I recently received a strange request on the lines of ‘ We have a problem with elephants pushing trees over blocking tracks and rides and need to train some volunteers with chainsaws to clear the routes”

Slightly surprised and somewhat amused, because I have friends that revel in setting me up, I asked a few searching questions.

It transpired that it was a genuine request from the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF).  The UCF are a charity that was set up some twenty years ago to support the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to recover and manage protected areas, promoting regional recovery and reducing poaching and wildlife crime.

The UCF work with park-adjacent communities to promote wildlife compatible livelihoods and mitigate human-wildlife conflict.

One of the searching questions I asked was “what chainsaws do you currently use?’ The answer was “I don’t know, I will go to the armoury and have a look.” I received a photograph of an old Husqvarna that had been confiscated from a poacher with a caption “We might need a couple of new ones”

Having worked with Echo Power Tools for a number of years I was convinced that a medium ranged chainsaw capable of operating in fairly extreme conditions would suffice and recommended the Echo CS501SX.

Vaccinations,Visa and flights all sorted I landed in Entebbe and was taken to Kampala where I met Michael Keigwin MBE the founder of the UCF, taken to the rugby club for some barbecued pork and a beer.

The next day I was met by Derek Lubangakene from the UCF and Sam the driver and embarked on a four hour drive across Uganda to Murchison Falls National Park and then a two hour journey through the park to the UWA Headquarters close to the river Nile.

The following day I met four young men that were to be my first chainsaw maintenance and cross-cutting group.  I have to say that they were smart, keen and very enthusiastic.

The chainsaws were unpacked, checked and set up.  I had asked for a few spares and received extra bars, chains, air filters, sprockets and clutch drums.

Having completed the maintenance, starting procedures and operational checks we travelled to the site (in the bush). The journey was not your everyday journey to work, it included a ferry across the Nile, encountering Baboons, Warthogs, Ugandan Bucks, Buffaloes, Elephants, Giraffes and of course Lions.

 

You would think that cross-cutting would be straight forward however, with the danger of so many predators the risk assessment dictated that we have an armed UWA Ranger guarding our work site.

Whilst demonstrating a couple of step cuts on a fallen tree a snake appeared on the stem approximately 90cm from my right shoulder and head, the snake went back under the bark and reappeared further down the stem I said to the boys “Is that venomous?” To which they replied in unison, “yes” . We all then began a traditional African dance. I can’t wait for the tree felling course!”

 

 

 

TKF Training is happy to announce the recent sponsorship of WODland 2019! And it was such a hit we are hosting the event again in August 2020!

Now that our feet have finally dried & the mud has been wash away. Here is our full video of the weekend to say thank you to everyone who took part in WODland The Awakening.

You were the WODland pioneers & here is to many more events.

Are you and your team ready for WODland 2020?

Held over two days in August 2020, WODland: The New Dawn is an outdoor functional fitness team competition.

Mixed teams of six, three guys, three girls, will battle it out in eight different workouts held across the whole of the weekend. The best performing teams will then face off against each other in final workout to claim a place on the winners’ WODland podium.

Designed to push the teams to the limits of their fitness, the WODland workouts will take place in a unique hidden tree-lined arena, specially created in the middle of a Yorkshire pine forest.

There’ll be food, drink, music, onsite parking, camping facilities and bucketloads of atmosphere. All you need to bring is your team – oh and plenty of strength and stamina.

Team spaces are limited, so be quick. Grab five friends, get signed up, get involved!

Enter Your Team

 

What to expect?

The WODland workouts are all team workouts – with an emphasis on the ‘teamwork’ – designed to test all types of functional fitness – with an emphasis on the ‘fun’.

Precise details of the seven workouts (plus final) involved will be released on the day / night of the event, but expect the WODland workouts to combine all aspects of functional fitness, including lifting, shifting, carrying, dragging, running, sprinting, cycling, and climbing.

The events will be designed to test not only fitness, strength, and stamina, but teamwork, timing, and strategy. So it will be the teams that work together the best that will succeed in WODland, not just the fittest or strongest.

You can visit our ‘workouts’ page to see a sample of the type of movements you will be expected to complete as a team at the weekend, these are also a great way of practicing working as a team in the run up to the event.

For more information go to www.wodland.co.uk

 

Where is WODland?

The WODland arena is cut right into the trees of a pine forest outside of Holmfirth in West Yorkshire.

Seriously – you’ll have never seen or competed anywhere like this before.

WODland HQ
Holme Styes Wood, Bare Bones Road, Holmfirth
near: HD9 2DE

Phone: 0785 4035 406
Email: info@wodlands.co.uk

We are happy to invite you to take a look around our new website. The site, designed and developed by Balance vc, is fully responsive and can be viewed equally well on desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices.