An initial United States Forest Service (USFS) certification is required for all USFS falling position (FAL1, FAL2, FAL3) qualifications, and every three years following initial certification. The following instructions will identify how to enter a faller certification for a USFS responder.
With the issuance of the FSFAQG on 10/1/14, the falling position (FAL1, FAL2, FAL3) qualifications no longer require the RT-212 and/or the GCHNSW saw refresher courses. You can find the requirements for the falling position qualifications in the FSFAQG.
Note that the USFS does not require the use of the faller task books. Instead, we may continue to certify fallers through our normal process: a faller is initially certified through a field evaluation and carded by the local unit, and then recertified every three years thereafter.
The old refresher requirement has been replaced with a license/certification requirement, which more closely matches our agency requirements for fallers. After a saw certification (or recertification) is complete, a license/certification should be awarded to the employee in IQCS. This license is good for three years from the date the certification was completed. See the instructions below on how to enter the falling license/cert. A hard copy of the saw card and saw evaluation form (if available) should then be included in the hard copy master record folder.
FYI: For those who still had an active RT-212 or GCHNSW refresher in IQCS, a competency was awarded by the system for the corresponding Faller license/certificate on the same date. This will ensure those who were current when the license/cert requirement went into effect on 10/1/2014 will remain current for three years from date of their last refresher. To retain currency past that date, a new license/certification must be entered.
The RT-212 and GCHNSW refreshers will no longer be used as of 10/1/14.
Enter a Faller License/Certification
These instructions are only for entering/recording a faller certification at the responder's Licenses and Certifications page. This process will not award the faller position to the responder's Incident Qual Card page. Awarding the faller position for a USFS responder must be done via the manually award function at the responder's Competencies page by the Account Manager. Follow the instructions on manually awarded a position competency identified in the Responder Competencies article.
- Navigate to Qualifications Management > Competency Management > Licenses and Certificates
- Search and select the correct responder to enter the falling certificate information.
- Enter or look up and choose the appropriate License/Certificate Code.
- FAL1 Advanced Faller Certification
- FAL2 Intermediate Faller Certification
- FAL3 Basic Faller Certification
- Enter or select the Issue Date that falling Certification was completed
- This is listed National Sawyer Certification Card or Chain/Crosscut Evaluation Form.
- Enter name of person who issued National Sawyer Certification Card or completed the Chain/Crosscut Evaluation Form.
- Select the expiration date of the Certification.
- For all USFS fallers, this is 3 years from date of National Sawyer Certification Card or completed the Chain/Crosscut Evaluation Form completion.
- Select the License Verified box, and include a copy of the National Sawyer Certification Card and/or the Chain/Crosscut Evaluation Form in the employee’s hard copy master records.
- Enter the state the National Sawyer Certification Card and/or Chain/Crosscut Evaluation Form was completed in.
- Select the Save button. Upon saving, only the corresponding certification competency will be award to the responder's Competencies page.
- FAL1 certification will award FAL1LC competency
- FAL2 certification will award FAL2LC competency
- FAL3 certification will award FAL3LC competency
The faller position code competency will not be award when a faller certification is entered. Again, these instructions are only for entering/recording a faller certification at the responder's Licenses and Certifications page. This process will not award the faller position to the responder's Incident Qual Card page. If the responder does not have a faller position code competency (FAL1, FAL2, or FAL3) then one must be manually awarded on the responder’s Competencies page.
For Fallers Initially Certified Above Basic Faller (FAL3)
If the initial faller certification is higher than FAL3, the account manger shall grant the position competency with justification for each faller level below the level certified. For example, if a faller is initially certified as FAL2, the account manager shall grant the position competency for FAL3 to the responder. If a responder is initially certified as FAL1, the account manager shall grant the position competencies for FAL2 and FAL3 to the responder. Follow the instructions on manually awarded (grant) a position competency identified in the Responder Competencies article.
For addition USFS agency specific requirements for the faller positions, please contact the USFS IQCS Agency Lead.