She came, she sawed, she conquered
With a swing of her axe, Stéphanie Bélanger-Naud, FMT’14, BSc(AgEnvSc)’17, regularly bites out large chunks from totem-like wooden poles, and, handling a single buck saw, slices through pine logs the size of sewer pipes. She's no slouch when it comes to a chain saw, either. A professional female timbersports athlete, or lumberjill, she excels at an axe event called the underhand chop. It involves hacking at a log she stands on, and breaking it in two, which she is capable of completing in 31 seconds.
This past August, Bélanger-Naud took home first place at the STIHL Timbersports Women's Pro Canadian Championship in Mississauga, Ontario. The 25 year-old has also proved herself internationally, having placed second among the women in this past summer’s Lumberjack World Championships in Wisconsin.