Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Say you’re a kid who isn’t particularly thrilled by the idea of sitting in a regular classroom, studying textbooks. Maybe you’re not really into sports, either. Or computers. Or any indoor activities, for that matter.
What’s out there for you?
How about Forestry Club?
The club is the brainchild of Sweet Home school officials who have determined to find activities that will appeal to the sort of teenagers described above.
The club, approved in concept by the School Board last spring, provides activities for students who are interested in learning to work in the woods.
“We’re trying to get a different draw, a different group of kids, to get different interest group going,” said club adviser Dustin Nichol, who teaches wood shop at the high school. “We’re trying to get them involved in activities that aren’t offered during school hours.”
The club will have two emphases: instruction in logging equipment skills and preparation for skills competitions and learning about the woods.
“There’s not going to be a whole lot of bookwork involved,” Nichol said. He has lined up some speakers from the forest industry to talk to students about forests and different areas of forestry. He also plans field trips to logging sites and to mills so students can
get an idea of how the timber industry works, where lumber comes from,” he said.
The club will also give students a chance to develop leadership skills and develop their public speaking and writing skills, if they are interested in doing so.
Nichol said the district was approached by wood products industry representatives last spring about starting such a program. He said Sweet Home High School had a “full-blown” forestry program in the 1980s, but it was cut in 1987.
“Our high school is right in the middle of a timber industry-oriented community,” he said. “But our high school doesn’t have any kind of forestry program. In the middle of the timber industry it’s nice to let people learn about the forest.”
Nichol said he hopes the club will give youngsters a chance to experience various aspects of the industry and the forest, and possibly develop interest in “what is a viable way of life,” a field in which they can work through the summer, possibly go to college and develop a career.
“Lot of kids in my generation, when I was growing up, worked summers and Christmas break (in the woods),” said Nichol, who was an all-state defensive back for Sweet Home and coaches the freshman football team. “We used it to finance our way through college.”
He said he worked for his uncle Bob and Rose Rice and for Cascade Timber Consultants through high school, cleaning creeks, building fire trails and doing other jobs.
Nichol studied diesel-powered technology at Oregon Institute of Technology. But during school breaks he would return to Sweet Home and work in the woods, usually as a choker setter or chasing on the landings. After graduating from OIT, he worked in construction for a year, then went back to the woods for several years, working for his uncle and other local firms, before he decided to teach.
He still works summers and during school breaks for Melcher Logging, he said, driving trucks, log loaders, forwarders, whatever they need, he said.
“Logging picks up in the summer and when they’re ready to lay people off, I’m ready to go back to school,” he said. “It works out pretty good.”
Nichol said he waited until after the football season was over this year to actually organize the club.
“It was kind of a big undertaking to get this thing organized,” he said. “But once I get it organized, get it going, it won’t be so bad. We’ll have meetings next fall.”
He plans to get things rolling officially after the Christmas break with meetings twice a week. So far, 37 students have signed up to participate.
Nichol said part of the challenge of organizing the club has been collecting the equipment students will need to participate in competitions and learn logging skills.
He said Weyerhaeuser Corp. gave a “generous” donation and he has also gotten help from the AOL’s Friends of Paul Bunyan Foundation and local loggers, such as Bob Waibel.
He said he still is looking for local help to procure safety equipment, axes, chain saws, marlin spikes.
“They could help out with some of the smaller stuff,” he said.
Nichol took 14 students to a competition at Scio High School last month and one, Cody Nunn, took fourth place in choker setting in a field of about 70.
“The kids, when we came back, were real excited about getting going, getting ready for next competition,” he said.
He plans to take the club to four or five competitions a year. The next at the Association of Oregon Loggers conference in Eugene in February, where a wide range of competitions, ranging from line splicing and hose lay to plant identification and public speaking, are offered.
The club is a member of the Associated Oregon Forestry Clubs, a leadership organization that helps students develop skills in running meetings, setting policy, and handling speaking engagements.
Sweet Home sophomore Kori Lynn Bishop is a state officer in the AOFC.
“When the weather starts getting better in the spring, we’ll start moving into learning about the forest,” Nichol said. “Right now we want to focus on learning how to compete a little better.
“So really, the club has something for everyone who wants to get involved.”