A late Introduction

Rugged made
Wesspur
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OlympicYJ

OlympicYJ

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Well I just realized that I never did an introduction. So now I'm doin one lol. I qualify as an -er lol I'm Up here at the base of the Olympic Penninsula. I get my Forest Tech degree in a cpl weeks then headin over to the University of Idaho for my 4yr Forest Management degree in August. To back up I'm no city slicker; grew up on a farm in the sticks, and worked in the brush a little. I've Interned in Industry for a couple summers now and again this summer with a different outfit. Put in some time with a contractor doin re-gen surveys and inventory also.

Wes

And yes As an "-er" beer is legal currency :givebeer:


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Countin rings up in ONF

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One of my sides from last summer I did log quality on.
 
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I went through the Fisheries Tech program at Peninsula College in the mid 70's. They had a dang good Forestry Tech program back then. Every one of the grads got placed as did the fish guys. We had 28 guys start in the fish program 10 of us made it thru.
 
Joe46 said:
I went through the Fisheries Tech program at Peninsula College in the mid 70's. They had a dang good Forestry Tech program back then. Every one of the grads got placed as did the fish guys. We had 28 guys start in the fish program 10 of us made it thru.
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Unfortunately they closed that program down. I know one of the guys through the last class... He was handed a brand new Relaskop to keep then the instructor changed his mind a second later lol Another guy I know, one of the foresters I've worked with, graduated from there also. They did have an excellent program to say the least.

There's only 3 tech programs in the state now. Green River Community College, Spokane Community College, and Grays Harbor College. I went to Grays Harbor. We have the newest program, at about 3 years old now. Sadley to say there are no undergrad 4yr degree programs for forestry in the state. UW has a grad level program I believe but It's more like urban forestry or some watered down crap lol
 
Good Job on going on four your degrees! I also plan on getting my degrees when I am older after I graduate high school. Looks like you have a nice summer job there. My uncle owns a logging company and I also run a harvester, skidder and saws for him in the summer time. We hay too.

Keep up the good work,


Shane
 
ShaneLogs said:
Good Job on going on four your degrees! I also plan on getting my degrees when I am older after I graduate high school. Looks like you have a nice summer job there. My uncle owns a logging company and I also run a harvester, skidder and saws for him in the summer time. We hay too.

Keep up the good work,


Shane
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Are you planning on going into forestry? If you are think long and hard about wether you want a tech degree or a 4yr. Much of this depends on what you want to do careerwise. You can always do the job of a tech with a 4yr but goodluck getting a job where they want a 4yr degree. If you do a tech and then a 4yr there is some inefficiency there. Classes not transferring, repetition of classes, etc. But you do get more field experience which is invaluable. At a 4yr you learn theory and such, which is important but you don't really learn the fundamentals of applying it like you do with a 2yr. Not to say that 4yr degrees and people that have them are incompetant lol it just gives you a stronger background.

Since you've yet to graduate high school here is the best piece of advice I can give you. If you figure out and know exactly what field you want to get into after you graduate you are much more motivated than not knowing. It saves you time and money. Still go to college even if you don't know what you want to do and get your core classes completed. Like lots of people I learned this the hard way. After doing a year of college right after high school I didn't know what I wanted to do. I took time off and then got back into it. This focused me but put me behind, time wise, in finishing my education. This is hard because you see your friends getting jobs and buying things and you sit there wanting those things too but you have to remind yourself that the education you are buying will potentially give you greater security, mobility, and job satisfaction including all the nice shiney toys that they have. A job can be taken away from you but an education cant.
 
OlympicYJ said:
Are you planning on going into forestry? If you are think long and hard about wether you want a tech degree or a 4yr. Much of this depends on what you want to do careerwise. You can always do the job of a tech with a 4yr but goodluck getting a job where they want a 4yr degree. If you do a tech and then a 4yr there is some inefficiency there. Classes not transferring, repetition of classes, etc. But you do get more field experience which is invaluable. At a 4yr you learn theory and such, which is important but you don't really learn the fundamentals of applying it like you do with a 2yr. Not to say that 4yr degrees and people that have them are incompetant lol it just gives you a stronger background.

Since you've yet to graduate high school here is the best piece of advice I can give you. If you figure out and know exactly what field you want to get into after you graduate you are much more motivated than not knowing. It saves you time and money. Still go to college even if you don't know what you want to do and get your core classes completed. Like lots of people I learned this the hard way. After doing a year of college right after high school I didn't know what I wanted to do. I took time off and then got back into it. This focused me but put me behind, time wise, in finishing my education. This is hard because you see your friends getting jobs and buying things and you sit there wanting those things too but you have to remind yourself that the education you are buying will potentially give you greater security, mobility, and job satisfaction including all the nice shiney toys that they have. A job can be taken away from you but an education cant.
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Thanks for the information OlympicYJ! I really want to get my ISA certification for Arboristry so I can climb and rig trees and stuff. I would also love to get a certification in Wildland Firefighting so I could also do that for a career if I had too. I want to log for a living but I am not to sure what kind of logging I want to do.
 
Our county has been working with Grays Harbor CC and there is a forestry tech program with classes in Morton. I guess you'd call it a satellite program from Grays Harbor.

Whatever education you get, don't stop learning after you get that piece of paper.

And Shane, take lots of math classes in high school. That might save you some $$ later on.
 
If you're just going into forestry you're wasting your time just getting a tech degree. It is unfortunate, because I learned exponetially more at my tech school then my peers at university, but it is the way it is. I highly recomend getting one first then going on.
 
slowp said:
Our county has been working with Grays Harbor CC and there is a forestry tech program with classes in Morton. I guess you'd call it a satellite program from Grays Harbor.

Whatever education you get, don't stop learning after you get that piece of paper.

And Shane, take lots of math classes in high school. That might save you some $$ later on.
Click to expand...

I thought the Morton program was associated with Centralia College? Ah, well, no matter, it's just as well that there's one more program available.

Also: agreed on the "never stop learning" sentiment, as well as the "take lots of math now to save money later" one. Both are very solid advice.
 
Morton is mostly Centralia CC, but they don't have forestry anymore. So, Grays Harbor was tapped into.
Not literally...

I think that's how it went.

My alma mater was Wenatchee Valley College which did away with their tech program not long after I gradiated.
 
Ah. That makes more sense than the understanding I had which was that 15 years after Bill Bean retired, and subsequently CC retired his program, a new one was started in Morton only, with no connection to the other, older program and no classes in Centralia proper. I thought that sounded a bit improbable.
 
The Centralia program was a onetime deal to graduate so many students. They got a grant for it. It was some sort of re-training thing. Even the books were bought by the grant but the students couldn't keep them. Since they didn't have an instructor they got an agreement with us to use our instructor but they had their own experimental forest out in Morton with their own lab tech. Can't think f his name of the top of my head but he works seasonally for the Forest Service.

Slowp GHC was literally tapped into! lol They used an online classroom thing to watch the lectures lol

Wowzer is completely right. I would even go farther and say you really learn how to do the job on the job. You need the Science background though to understand what you're learning... kindof. It's still not all that difficult. For a field forester doing silviculture you really only need a 2yr degree but sadly the employers want more education.

Shane listen to Slowp on the math. You may not get credit for the math toward college but it makes it loads easier when you do take it in college!
 

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