For loggers, equipment operators and supervisors: PPE including chaps and boots, first aid, work area spacing and signaling, chain saw rules, machine and vehicle safety, felling with a retreat path, danger trees, and limbing and bucking.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.266 · about 6 min read
Need proof of training? The full course (30 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.
PPE (including employee-owned PPE) is kept serviceable and inspected before initial use each shift; defects are fixed or the PPE replaced before work starts.
Chain saw operators wear cut-resistant leg protection (such as ballistic nylon) covering the full thigh to the top of the boot (exceptions: a climber where the employer shows leg protection poses a greater hazard, or work from a vehicle-mounted elevating and rotating work platform meeting 1910.67), and cut-resistant foot protection. Every employee wears foot protection, such as heavy-duty logging boots that are waterproof or water repellent and cover and support the ankle.
Head protection where falling or flying objects are possible; eye protection where falling or flying objects could injure the eyes, and face protection where there is potential for facial injury, such as operating a chipper (logger-type mesh screens may be worn for chain saw work and yarding).
Employees handling wire rope wear hand protection against puncture wounds, cuts and lacerations. The employer provides the hand, leg, head, eye and face protection at no cost to the employee.
First-aid kits are at each cutting site, each active landing and on each employee transport vehicle.
Stop work and move to a safe place when conditions such as electrical storms, strong winds affecting tree fall, heavy rain or snow, extreme cold, dense fog, fires, mudslides or darkness create a hazard.
Adjacent occupied work areas are at least two tree lengths apart (more on slopes where logs can roll or slide).
Each employee stays within visual or audible contact with another employee, and the employer accounts for each employee at the end of each shift.
Use hand signals, whistles, horns or radios when voice will not carry. Engine noise is not a signal. Only a designated person gives signals except in an emergency.
If a felled tree contacts a power line, notify the power company immediately and stay clear until it says there is no electrical hazard.
Inspect each tool before initial use during each workshift. At a minimum check handles and guards, controls, chain-saw chain adjustment, chain-saw mufflers, chain brakes and nose shielding devices, heads of shock, impact-driven and driving tools (no mushrooming), cutting edges, and all other safety devices.
Do not remove or disable any kickback device. Gas saws have a throttle that stops the chain when released.
Fuel at least 10 feet from flames or ignition sources, and start at least 10 feet from the fueling area.
Start on the ground or firmly supported, with the chain brake engaged. Drop starting is prohibited.
Hold the saw with the thumbs and fingers of both hands around the handles (unless the employer shows that creates a greater hazard), be certain of your footing before cutting, and before felling clear away brush and obstacles that could interfere with the cut or the retreat path. Do not cut directly overhead.
Shut the saw off or release the throttle before retreating, and shut it down or engage the brake when carrying it more than 50 feet (or less than 50 feet where conditions such as terrain, underbrush or slippery surfaces may create a hazard).
Machines and vehicles are inspected before initial use each shift, with defects fixed before work. Operating instructions are available.
Machines are started and operated by a designated person, within rated capacity and the manufacturer's stability limits.
Before starting or moving, the operator makes sure no one is in the machine's path.
No riders without equivalent seating and protection, and no one rides on a load.
Before leaving the operator's station: set the parking brake, put the transmission in park, and lower or secure blades, buckets, saws and shears. Discharge stored hydraulic or pneumatic energy as the manufacturer specifies.
Seat belts are provided, used and fastened tightly on machines with ROPS/FOPS or overhead guards. Tractors, skidders, swing yarders, log stackers, log loaders and mechanical felling devices placed into initial service after February 9, 1995 have FOPS and/or ROPS (machines capable of 360-degree rotation are excepted). Guards stay in place.
Vehicle operators hold a valid license for the vehicle class.
Do not fell trees in a way that could strike a rope, cable, power line, machine or person.
No one approaches a feller (manual or mechanical) closer than two tree lengths until the feller acknowledges it is safe (for manual felling, unless the employer shows a team is necessary to fell a particular tree).
Danger trees (including lodged trees and snags) are felled, removed or avoided before work starts nearby. If left, they are marked and no work is done within two tree lengths unless shown safe. Domino felling is prohibited.
Before felling, plan and clear a retreat path running diagonally away from the expected felling line, unless the employer shows that path poses a greater hazard than an alternate path. After the backcut, move away immediately on that path.
Evaluate snow and ice, wind, lean, dead limbs and nearby trees. Make an undercut (unless the employer shows felling the tree without one creates no hazard) and a backcut that leaves enough hinge wood to guide the fall.
On slopes where logs could roll or slide, fell uphill from or level with previously felled trees, and limb and buck on the uphill side.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.266(d)(1)-(3), (d)(5)-(8), (e), (f)(1)-(3), (f)(8), (g) and (h)(1)-(3). It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1910.266(i). Your employer must still provide training, at no cost to the employee, for each employee including supervisors, conducted by a designated person: prior to initial assignment, whenever the employee is assigned new work tasks, tools, equipment, machines or vehicles, and whenever the employee demonstrates unsafe job performance. At a minimum it covers safe performance of assigned work tasks; safe use, operation and maintenance of the tools, machines and vehicles the employee uses; recognition of the hazards of the employee's specific work tasks and of other logging hazards; the employer's work-site procedures, practices and requirements; and the requirements of 1910.266. New and newly assigned employees work under the close supervision of a designated person until they demonstrate the ability to safely perform their new duties independently, and the employer keeps a written certification record. This course is also not first-aid and CPR training: your employer must assure that each employee, including supervisors, receives first-aid and CPR training meeting at least appendix B to 1910.266, and that it remains current (1910.266(i)(7)).
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.