Local high schoolers interested in working in the woods got a taste of the profession Wednesday, Nov. 18, at a breakfast sponsored by the mid-valley chapters of the Society of American Foresters.
Students from Sweet Home, Philomath and Scio high schools, the only local schools that have forestry programs or clubs, got to mingle with the pros at the event held at Skyline Restaurant in Sweet Home. Some 60 people attended.
“Forestry is not necessarily a dying profession, but we’re trying to get young people interested in working in the woods,” said Nicole Younger, chair of the Mary’s Peak Chapter of the SAF, which covers Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties.
“Instead of sitting in an office and Twittering, we’re trying to get them to get out and work on the ground.”
Sweet Home High School senior Eric Munts said the event “helped introduce some of the other parts of forestry job opportunities, ways you could possibly go.”
Students mingled at tables with retired and active foresters from the area.
The professionals, who included Dave Furtwangler, Brian Murray, Kevin VanCleave and Mike Reynolds of CTC, introduced themselves and some talked about their work and why they love it.
“There’s a sense of legacy when what you’re working on goes beyond your lifetime,” said OSU forestry professor Jim Fletcher. “Guys 70 years old can’t stop working. That’s the kind of business we’re in.”
Peter Matzka, education specialist for the Oregon Forestry Resources Institute, who last week spent time visiting the forestry groups at all three high schools, echoed that thought.
“This is really what forestry is about,” he said. “Here, this morning, you’ve got all these foresters in this room who’ve come together to show you how much they love forestry.
We’ve had a couple of people say they just love it who’ve been working in this field for 50-plus years.
After breakfast and the introductions, Younger, who is on maternity leave from her job as a forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry office in Lyons, led the students in a quiz to test their forestry expertise. The professional foresters acted as lifelines for the contestants, who had 30 seconds to come up with answers to such questions as how many board feet are in a log that’s 32 feet long and 24 inches in diameter on the small end (a. 810 b. 630 c. 410 d. 1,250 €” answer: a).
“I thought it was great,” said Dustin Nichol, who advises the Sweet Home High School Forestry Club. “It gave them some exposure. A lot of those people who were there were from the local community. Too many times they’re from the big city and the kids don’t know them from Adam. The kids see these people around town, know them from sporting events, whatever.
That right there makes a huge difference.”
SHHS senior Cody Loewen said it was “really educational.”
“I got to meet a lot of new people from the business, companies and stuff €“ logging,” he said. “They were trying to get us inspired to go into forestry.”
Nichol said the interaction would be good for students interested in any profession.
“I wish we could have something like that with a large group. I’d like to try to get all the juniors and seniors involved in something like that,” he said. “It’s better than talking to a teacher about it €“ setting them up at tables so they can talk to people who are actually in the business, whether it be forestry or engineering or whatever.”
Munts and Loewen said they sat at tables with faculty members from the Oregon State University forestry program, who made them aware of opportunities they didn’t realize existed in the field.
“They were knowledgeable and they told us how they traveled overseas, not just in the United States, but around the globe,” Munts said. “They told us how logging there is pretty similar.”
Loewen said he hadn’t given a lot of thought to going into forestry before attending the breakfast.
“It was kind of eye-opening,” he said. “I love doing outdoors things. It was just eye-opening to find out you can do stuff you enjoy while making money.”