Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Forestry is growing at Sweet Home High School.
The school’s Forestry Club returned four members and added 16 new students this year.
Club members already have been busy, with field trips, academics and competition; and in their second year of operation, they have their own competition field.
At Scio last month, nine students competed against some 150 from five other schools. Six SHHS students were new to forestry competition.
Eric Munts, a junior who was a club member last year, placed first in map reading, second in compass and pacing and fifth in power bucking.
Chas Palmer, a returning junior, placed second in written expression. Cheryl Wilson, a sophomore in her second year, finished first in the novice pole climb, third in choker setting and sixth in written expression.
Leah Dauley, a junior competing for the first time, finished sixth in choker setting, and freshman MacKenzie Dyke finished sixth in power bucking.
Additional new members include seniors Aaron Looney, Leif Erickson and Brandon Larsen; juniors Jeff Burdine, John Cockrell, David Horner, Cody Loewin and Michael Day; sophomores Mike Day and Dallas Loewin; and freshmen Hunter Bidwell, Matt Cuff, Glen Hesberg and Jon Walters. The team also returns sophomore Dillon Tidwell.
While competition is one of the attractive features of the club, Adviser Dustin Nichol said, “it’s not just a bunch of physical stuff.”
It includes academics, which are also tested at competitions, he said.
Nichol said he understands that it’s hard for students to sit in class all day and then do another two-hour class, so he includes opportunities to complete club activities through other classes. In speech or English classes, students might choose to write their papers on forestry.
All of the students also have been first-aid certified this year, he said. One of the club advisory committee members provided the training.
Other non-competitive activities include log scaling and timber cruising, Nichol said.
“I really am trying to focus on a group of kids that are in this school that have a lot of potential to come out and compete,” Nichol said.
He noted that some students work or face other obstacles to participating, such as mainstream sports, which require a heavy demand on time.
Club activities can have lasting value as students learn hands-on skills with real-world applications, Nichol said, and those lead to a variety of possible jobs and careers.
Pole climbing, for instance, is useful to power companies, taking a special person to be able to hang hundreds of feet in the air to work on a tower or line, for example. Students could also put their skills to work as an arborist or, most obviously, in logging.
“A lot of people think the timber industry is dead,” Nichol said. “It’s slow just like everything else, but it’s always going to be here.”
With a generation of loggers ready to retire, he said, people will be needed to take their places in the near future.
If students don’t pursue a related job or career, he said, it still gives them skills they can use during the summer while going to school.
He always encourages youths to get into apprenticeship programs, he said. “They invest in you and train you.”
That could include metal fabricators, electricians, carpenters or accounting, he said. The high school needs to offer that kind of support, “and that’s what I’m trying to do with my club.”
Among their activities so far this year, the club spent two weekends helping the Sweet Home Evangelical Church cut and haul Christmas trees for its annual sale.
The club also attended a field trip with Rob Melcher of Melcher Logging to Camp Sherman near the head of the Metolius River. There they learned about biomass fuels reduction with Melcher Logging and T2, which chips limbs and foliage for sale to a co-generation plant in Roseburg.
Competition is a key component, Nichol said, and “we’re going to start going hard and heavy with that.”
The club will compete at several competitions and then attend the Association of Oregon Forestry Clubs state competition at Central Oregon Community College in May.
Nichol said he is trying to host a competition here, but if he isn’t able to get a competition, Sweet Home will host one next year for sure.
The high school field was set up in early November, he said. “It was amazing the number of people that were willing to come out and volunteer their time and resources to get that set up.”
A banner at the field lists all of the club’s sponsors, who have given money or time to make the competition and practice field happen, Nichol said. The biggest supporter of the club so far has been the Friends of Paul Bunyan, which gave a $5,000 check to the club last year and then awarded another in mid-October through Associated Oregon Loggers.
Advisory board members are Rob Melcher; Karla Burcham of Weyerhaeuser; Jim Nichol, a parent of a junior high student; and Kevin VanCleave of Cascade Timber Consulting.