ENGLISH 2023 Fall Western Forester

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS

Volume 68 Number 4

Oregon • Washington State • Alaska Societies

Western Forester October/November/December 2023

Thank you to WESTERN FORESTRY & CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION for cosponsoring this SPECIAL EDITION “Building the Forestry and Natural Resources Workforce” in English and Spanish.

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Forestry and Natural Resources Workforce Development

By Andrea Watts The forestry and natural resources workforce include a multitude of job titles: forester, research scientist, wildlife technician, wildland firefighter, GIS analyst, and nursery worker are just a few. And the demand to fill these positions has never been greater.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there will be on average about 3,800 openings for conservation scientists and foresters each year for the next decade. For forest and conservation workers, there will be on average about 2,300 openings each year for the next decade; however, employment is projected to decline three percent through 2031.

Since the need to manage our natural and urban landscapes has never been greater, workforce pipelines need expanded to fill these present and future positions and employers incentivized to ensure their employees are satisfied and remain in the profession.

Though the theme of the summer 2020 issue of the Western Forester was “Workforce Development,” that it’s possible to produce a 28-page issue three years later shows the diversity of initiatives underway across all the sectors of forestry and natural resources to address the workforce challenge. And even with this expanded issue, I know there are organizations and sectors missing.

As the lead article for this issue, I asked the Ecosystem Workforce Program, a joint program of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University College of Forestry, Associated Oregon Loggers Inc. (AOL) and the AgForestry Leadership Program in Washington State to share what they are observing on workforce development within their specific focus area and their efforts to build or strengthen the pipeline.

What follows are excerpts of our conversations that have been edited for length and clarity.

Emily Jane Davis, director of the

IN THIS ISSUE

Building the Forestry and Natural Resources Workforce The Next Chapter of the Alaska Youth Stewards Program A Ground-Up Approach to Building an Equitable and Sustainable Forest Workforce

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10

Milling Legislation to (Hopefully) Jump-Start Workforce Growth in Alaska 16

Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program at Oregon State University, and Manuel Machado, forest workforce coordinator with Oregon State Universi- Emily Jane Davis ty Extension Of the forestry workforce, what segment is the Ecosystem Workforce Program’s focus?

Davis—We are Manuel Machado concerned quite broadly with the equity and recognition of the forest workforce at large. It spans from mechanically intensive logging work to mills and includes those of us who do community capacity building and community-based organizations that support

fuels reduction. We want to see all parts of this workforce having equitable working conditions and for there to be the capacity to get this important work done.

While we have a whole workforce in mind, one project specifically focuses on what we call the labor-intensive workforce. This segment is performing the non-commercial activities, such as cutting smaller diameter trees and brush, and the piling and burning. And within that labor-intensive workforce we’re also focused specially on the Latinx workforce. They’ve been the bedrock of this work since the 1970s when reforestation became common, and there was a need for a much-expanded labor-intensive workforce.

What are trends that you’re observing regarding this laborintensive segment of the workforce?

Machado—One of the big aspects that we’re looking at is government contract-

Western Forester Society of American Foresters PO Box 82836 Portland, OR 97282 (503) 224-8046 https://forestry.org/western-forester/ EDITOR: Andrea Watts wattsa@forestry.org Western Forester is published four times a year by the Oregon, Washington State, and Alaska Societies’ SAF Northwest Office The mission of the Society of American Foresters is to advance sustainable management of forest resources through science, education, and technology; to enhance the competency of its members; to establish professional excellence; and to use our knowledge, skills, and conservation ethic to ensure the continued health, integrity, and use of forests to benefit society in perpetuity.

STATE SOCIETY CHAIRS Oregon: Jacob Putney, (541) 523-6418, Jacob.putney@oregonstate.edu Washington State: Luke Semler, luke.semler85@gmail.com Alaska: Mitch Michaud, mitchmichaudak@ gmail.com NORTHWEST SAF BOARD MEMBERS District 1: Chris Schnepf, (208) 292-1288, cschnepf@uidaho.edu District 2: Ron Boldenow (541) 350-5356, rboldenow@cocc.edu Please send change of address to: Society of American Foresters, 2121 K Street NW, Suite 315, Washington, DC 20037 membership@safnet.org Anyone is at liberty to make fair use of the material in this publication. To reprint or make multiple reproductions, permission must be obtained from the editor. Proper notice of copyright and credit to the Western Forester must appear on all copies made. Permission is granted to quote from the Western Forester if the customary acknowledgement accompanies the quote.

Other than general editing, the articles appearing in this publication have not been peer reviewed for technical accuracy. The individual authors are primarily responsible for the content and opinions expressed herein.

ing and procurement, because contractors get these contracts through the Forest Service, especially in Oregon. There’s a lot of barriers that prevent new contractors from getting into this space. These barriers are English and digital literacy.

Navigating online systems, such as sam. gov (System for Award Management) or Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR), are really tough, and writing a proposal and bidding on a contract requires a lot of technical expertise on how to do it.

From a workforce development perspective, we want to try to reduce those barriers or at least simplify them. At the moment, the Forest Service is trending toward larger contracts and working with larger contractors because there’s thousands of acres to be treated, and this work requires a crew of 50-150 workers.

Davis—This is a big driver for the concerns that we have, particularly with the increases in federal investment that is coming through the Inflation Reduction Act and also through state programs. The demand for this workforce is expanding at a level unseen before. What will be done to make that a safer and more equitable workforce?

Machado—Everyone is saying we need more workforce capacity: There’s a lot of money out there but not enough of a workforce to implement it. The Forest Service has also downsized a lot and there’s a lack of contracting officers and contracting officer representatives to oversee all these contracts that need to be implemented.

Davis—Another trend we’ve seen in the last few years is an increase in the H-2B guest worker program. It’s important to recognize there’s always been a spectrum of these Latinx workers. Some of these workers are now multigenerational. They’ve been living here for a while or maybe were born here, and their parents were in this industry. Some people are coming from their home countries to work here part of the year and returning.

There can be negative discourse about the role of these people in doing this work. In reality, they have a lot of knowledge, and they’re performing valuable work. Many of them are returning again and again, and they deserve to be recognized. This presents a barrier in terms of training and resources because someone

who is here as a worker is limited in what they can do; for example, they can’t start a business essentially, so they limited if they want to advance in this sector.

Machado—The structure of H-2B visa is exploitative in nature because the H-2A and H-2B visas create a skewed power dynamic between the worker and the employer. And many H-2B visa holders don’t see a pathway to citizenship or staying here and being able to open their own businesses. Eventually, they return to their country, and we lose a lot of the knowledge they’ve accumulated.

H-2A and H-2B visas are not unskilled labor. Labeling it as unskilled is unfair because the workers who have been there for three, four, or five years are very knowledgeable about the forests they’re working in and the work they’re doing.

And by labeling as unskilled, we’re disenfranchising them and preventing others, whether it’s a policymaker or American citizens, as seeing them as valuable and worth keeping.

What research or initiatives is the Ecosystem Workforce Program involved with?

Davis—We have a USDA grant researching where these labor-intensive businesses are located and where they do the work. We’re also doing a qualitative case study research in Southern Oregon and Northern California interviewing forest workers, business owners, and people who are also involved in the land management sector more broadly, as well organizations that serve forest workers.

This qualitative research helps us better understand why people are getting into this work, what are the challenges and opportunities that they experience, and what do they think needs to change and be better. Then we’re using the knowledge to develop outreach and training, Machado—We’re also designing a training program to help forest workers who are interested in pursuing a business in this industry to get started. One of the big parts of this training program is outlining the skills they need and barriers they’ll face along their business journey, whether it’s starting the business or growing, or if they’re ambitious and have the skills to overcome the barriers to get into procurement and government con-

Next Issue: What’s New in Forest Policy 2 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

tracting. There’s a lot of moving pieces and we want to put them all in one place so workers and aspiring entrepreneurs can get them easily together.

There’s so much funding and more needs to go into addressing the barriers so smaller contractors can get in. Just being more proactive in building the pipelines and really going out to these communities—whether rural, Latinx, vulnerable or underserved—and having more of a presence and explaining how the contracting system works and where the opportunities are. The sooner the pipeline gets built up and reinforced, the sooner we’ll be able to solve the problems all this funding is intended to solve.

Sara Nelson, workforce development manager, Associated Oregon Loggers, Inc. What sector of the workforce does AOL focus its efforts?

What are you seeing Sara Nelson regarding hiring?

Broadly, we help recruit for positions that range from hand planting crews to operators. For the majority of our constituents and members, they don’t necessarily need a college degree but need to be willing to put in the time to advance.

We’re in this interesting position of employers being very willing to hire and advance people who don’t come with experience.

We’re also in an interesting time where increased mechanization creates a bit more safety and a need for less labor; however, employees need to be higher skilled when they start. But how do you start someone who maybe doesn’t know what they’re doing but needs to understand the ecosystem of the landscape?

If they’re willing to start on a hand crew or planting crew, they’ll start learning about the landscape of the job and then they can move into another job further up the ladder. Although I would say this approach is challenging for retention because you have to keep someone around long enough to want to do the job and show up for work.

How is AOL developing the workforce pipeline?

My focus is a lot of communicating,

educating, and informing people. There’s such a lack of people considering the work because they’re just not understanding what the jobs out there are. Because there are so many places for people to start, I found it difficult to explain the massive number of jobs available when speaking to teachers and students, so I created trading cards, 42 in all. These trading cards are divided into Trades, Tools, and Technologies, and they list the jobs associated with each category.

They’ve been really popular. Adults love them. Kids love them, and teachers love them.

I developed a Logger Day program, which brings loggers into the classroom,

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and they talk to the students about the profession. I’ve held three now for elementary school students. The first one was in a small school that went really well, and the second one was in Portland with 160 kids. The teachers were skeptical at first Continued on page 25

Editor’s Note

sking Google, “What is workforce development?” generates results of articles that are variations of training employees to meet the needs of employers. Of these results, it’s an explanation on the University of North Carolina Global Social Development Innovations webpage that is most applicable to how this Western Forester issue came together: “Workforce development, broadly defined, is an interrelated set of solutions designed to meet employment needs.

Workforce development promotes employment using a reciprocal approach of addressing the needs of both job seekers and employers.” (https://gsdi.unc.edu/ our-work/workforce-development/) In this inaugural bilingual issue, we address the points raised in each sentence quoted above. Articles highlighting solutions to address employment needs, such passing legislation or increasing the support for youth training programs, are paired with articles discussing how to make the workplace more equitable and sustainable. This definition’s emphasis on a reciprocal approach that also addresses the needs of job seekers is why the Western Forestry & Conservation Association and SAF Northwest Office partnered to coproduce a Spanish version of this issue. It is vitally important that future employees—in ALL areas of the forestry industry—can envision themselves entering and participating in this workforce.

And, for those already in the forestry industry, ALL employees are seen and valued and empowered to thrive.

Thank you to the authors contributing articles to this issue and the advertisers who continue to financially support the Western Forester. We especially appreciate the Spanish-language versions of the advertisements. A huge thanks to Francisco Gonzalez and Manuel Ronquillo for providing translation services that made the Spanish edition possible. WF Nicole Jacobsen, executive director Western Forestry & Conservation Association

Andrea Watts, manager SAF Northwest Office

This publication is a benefit of your membership in your SAF State Society WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 3

post-high school. As we are all very Growing the Forestry Workforce Begins work aware, a shift occurred in the late ’80s regarding careers in the trades industries. in High School and Through College It was widely accepted during those years

By Blake Manley

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common groan of the older generations when referring to the younger generation can be summed up in three words: “Kids these days.” We all know what those three words are expressing. For many it is the belief, whether true or not, that kids today are somehow different from when they were growing up. You will hear they are less motivated, exhibit a lower work ethic, generally display a lack of respect for their elders, and so on. This terse refrain has existed in one form or another for generations and echoes on today as a shared sentiment among those with more experience in the workforce: Young people today are somehow different.

When conversing amongst themselves, they lament that young people are not being properly trained and do not seem ready to fulfill even basic job requirements. Many of these opinions stem from interactions they have had with small groups of the up-and-coming workforce, but it is rare that any solutions are ever brought up or enacted.

For those in select portions of the Pacific Northwest, solutions are available within the forest products industry right now. High school students are being taught through targeted programs about the positive aspects of our forests and the forest industry. For many other areas in the country, those solutions are in different stages but are coming. So, what am I talking about? What programming is out there that you may not have heard about?

How Oregon is making a change Workforce development programming within the forest products industry is in full swing throughout selected regions of Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, and several other pockets around the United States. The Oregon model is currently having a huge positive impact on young people throughout that state. The Future Natural Resources Leaders (FNRL) has grown into a very robust program. The

FNRL has officially existed for eight years, but the programming grew out of the Associated Oregon Forestry Clubs (AOFC).

For Oregonians, forestry curriculum has survived, in some capacity, since the 1970s. However, during the mid-2010s, the number of schools participating fell off to just six. The AOFC was clubtype programming with little to no direct thread to formal education. The Department of Education had a small connection to this program. This limited each school’s ability to access funding at the state level as well as the national levels.

By 2016 those six programs were still doing what they could to train young people. Those communities and their industries benefited from this training but also worked hard to keep these programs viable. A change was on the horizon though. The November 2016 ballot was more than just a presidential vote; Measure 98 was also on the ballot. This was a three-part funding for schools that was going before the population to decide on.

Part of the funding was directed toward College Readiness and Dropout Prevention. In my opinion, funding directed at Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities was the most important.

CTE opportunities over the last seven years have proven to simultaneously prepare students for college, increased graduation rates by 10-20 percent, and equips students to be career ready. A study conducted by the Oregon Department of Education found that students who participated in a minimum of one year of Career Technical Education training graduated at a significantly higher rate than those that did not. During that same period, pay rates for these jobs were increasing higher and higher. Supply was lower and demand was higher. Simple economics.

Measure 98 passed.

This passage marked a significant investment in the educational opportunities available to prepare students for

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that teaching the trade industries in a high school setting did not lead to viable career paths. Many schools, for many different reasons, cut programming such as wood shop, auto shop, and metal shop.

So much of the teaching for that period centered around a college or bust approach. In the state of Oregon, much of that changed after 2016. The pendulum began swinging back toward the center.

One of the most notable changes was funding directed by local schools toward an exploding Career Technical Student Organization called Future Natural Resource Leaders (FNRL). These six forestry programs that were in survival mode became recognized formally as Programs of Study with career pathways.

As the money from Measure 98 started flowing, eight programs were going by 2018. Teachers then formed the Oregon Natural Resources Educators Association to provide a unified voice, assist in developing curriculum that worked for young people, and a guiding direction of what the FNRL would look like. By February of 2020, nearly 20 programs were on board.

Exponential growth was occurring.

All these programs were teaching full programs, not single classes. This means at least two credits were being offered at those schools in forestry and natural resources.

With strong leadership in place, growth continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group of teachers met regularly to find the best possible ways to reach young people during a hard time.

Programs continued to grow, both in the number of offered programs and the sizes of the existing programs. The following three years would see total numbers of programs reach 45 by spring of 2023. The FNRL would see record-breaking participation at local and statewide Career Development Events (CDE), otherwise known as forestry competitions. Most importantly, towns and local businesses were getting involved at historic levels.

Sweet Home built a career fair where businesses hired young people for both permanent and summertime positions.

Scio High School broke all recorded numbers for participation in its CDE with 230 participants. The Pacific Logging

PHOTO TAKEN BY CALLIE MASS

Sweet Home is host of one of the local Career Development Events. Also known as forestry competitions, at this event students compete in activities that include power buck, first aid, timber cruising, log scaling, and job interview.

Congress partnered with the FNRL to offer three field trips to logging sites through its adopt-a-high school program.

Having these types of opportunities results in the workforce getting younger and the general population being well informed.

Several other states are doing something to help this need. Wisconsin, Maine, and Northern California have created different programs to help address the training needs of the forest products industry. One other state is gaining lots of momentum in developing its future workforce.

or forester, these applied skillsets they can develop will pay dividends in their careers.

Along with these investments, the CNR has also launched three two-year associate degree programs. Forest Operations and Technology is one of those programs. This degree is designed to allow students to directly enter the workforce equipped with the necessary skills and foundational knowledge to be successful contributors to the industry. Students in this program are focusing more on the operations side of forestry and the skillsets necessary to support the future

of safe, productive, and sustainable forest and logging operations.

The final step for the state of Idaho is building career-ready students at the high school level. During the spring of 2023 legislative session, the state of Idaho enacted the Career Ready Students Grant. This is a $45 million one-time funding for 7-12 grade students. It allows for school districts to make necessary changes to incorporate more career learning at the schools. Many schools are taking advantage of this grant by incorporating a deeper level of industrial learning in the forestry industry. With this funding we see schools helping rural students to see more career paths than they did previously, especially within the forestry industry of Northern Idaho.

These are both exciting and challenging times. Workforce challenges are happening all over the United States in nearly every industry. Forestry is addressing those challenges and meeting them head on. If your community, state or region does not have anything in place to meet those challenges, point to the work in Oregon and Idaho. These are two states that are taking this challenge head on. WF Blake Manley is the program manager of workforce development for the University of Idaho Experimental Forest. Creator of the YouTube series “Manley Jobs,” Manley can be reached at bmanley@uidaho.edu.

Idaho’s approach Over the last two years, the University of Idaho has revolutionized their student logging crew. For over 50 years the College of Natural Resources (CNR) has employed students to log for the University of Idaho Experimental Forest. Similar models also exist nationwide. However, two years ago the university updated and modernized the equipment being used.

Industry input was gathered, funding was secured, and by the summer of 2023 the student logging crew was operating a new Cat processor with a Waratah dangle head, a John Deere skidder, and most recently a TimberPro feller buncher.

All three machines are current industry standards. Students now gain invaluable hands-on experience operating stateof-the-art equipment. Whether those students enter the workforce as a logger WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 5

The Next Chapter of the Alaska Youth Stewards Program

By Michael Mausbach, Lee House, and S’eiltín Kaylah Duncan

gathering data to identify trees for local cultural wood use such as carving totem poles and dugout canoes. About 150 tacky whine miles to the north near Angoon, a net full echoes through of salmon frenzy as another youth crew the understory works with FS staff to harvest salmon that of the Tongass Nationthey will distribute throughout the comal Forest of Southeast munity of Angoon. The crew based in Alaska. Something Hoonah pull invasive plant species from akin to a door creaking around a popular recreational cabin. loudly amongst the In Kake, the crew processes harvested trees. At the source of Michael Mausbach plants and berries that will be used later the sound, a group of in the fall during the community’s TradiPrince of Wales Island tional Foods Fair. teenagers adorned For the past eight years, rural and with hard hats stands Indigenous youth have spent their at the base of an summers working on these stewardship old-growth red cedar projects and many others through a tree, one with a corkprogram now known as Alaskan Youth screw-like tool called Lee House Stewards (AYS)—formerly known as YCC an increment borer and TRAYLS. [See Western Forester 2020 twisting deep into the summer issue “What is TRAYLS?”] The tree to pull out a core AYS program seeks to provide local youth sample. With each with experiential opportunities to engage twist, a loud creak with their lands, develop their leaderresonates. They stand ship abilities, grow their soft skills, and alongside their crew acquire new hard skills, all while focusleader and United ing their efforts on the unique priority States Department of S’eiltín Kaylah projects of each community.

Duncan Agriculture (USDA) It’s about stewardship Forest Service (FS) employees who are teaching them about In the circles of natural resource dendrochronology. Together, they are management, youth, and workforce

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development, the concept of “stewardship” has become essential to the work.

More than stewardship, AYS embodies “Indigenous stewardship” as an alternative to centuries of workforce and resource development practices rooted in Western colonialism and settler colonial ways of working. Indigenous stewardship programs provide opportunities for rural and Indigenous youth to reflect on, develop, and apply skills that are rooted in their ancestral lands in support of their communities’ regenerative futures. This approach focuses on proactive work that looks toward the future and provides space to reconcile the exploitation of the past.

Many AYS crewmembers are not old enough to remember the logging boom of the 1980s or the subsequent policy reforms brought on by the State of Alaska’s Forest Practices Act and the Tongass Timber Reform Act of the ’90s.

During those earlier boom years, logging operations ran along the banks of the region’s life-giving salmon streams, the keystone of our regional economy since time immemorial. This mismanagement disrupted intact ecosystems, decreased salmon runs, and lowered the annual return of salmon. For Alaska Native peoples, salmon is a culturally significant resource that has provided sustenance to communities for generations.

AYS, with Indigenous stewardship and regenerative practice at its core, allows generations of Indigenous stewards to engage in a kind of shared healing. Some AYS projects collaborate with agencies that in recent history have contributed to the marginalization and disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples. The youth stewardship program is an opportunity for shared generations to support activities that work to restore Native lands, provide opportunities to grow skills, generate income, and work together towards collectively built, sustainable futures.

Investing in the future Recognizing the importance of healing through shared stewardship, the USDA has been working on the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy (SASS), in which the federal agency is investing in local priorities and community-led projects across the region that address

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PHOTO TAKEN BY BETHANY GOODRICH/SUSTAINABLE SOUTHEAST PARTNERSHIP

An Alaska Youth Stewards crew based in Kake brushed out a sign post and installed a road sign that incorporates the local Lingit language on a USDA Forest Service road.

sustainability, enhance community resilience, and conserve natural resources. The AYS program was included in the 70 projects and programs that were invested in through SASS, but beyond funding, AYS also embodies the values of the strategy, which prioritizes a more holistic approach to land management in the region that is based on trust, relationships, and supporting the collective needs of the communities that call this region home.

AYS is nearing a decade of demonstrating the collective impact of multiple partners coming together to support a community-driven program that directly benefits the youth of Southeast Alaska.

Recently, the AYS crews consolidated as a singular program under the leadership of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to continue providing Southeast Alaska youth with well-supported pathways toward becoming empowered contributors to our region’s cultural, economic, and environmental resilience.

Partners of AYS include the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, Spruce Root, Inc., the National Forest Foundation, Sealaska Corporation, the USFS, the Prince of Wales Vocational and Technical Education Center, Hoonah Indian Association, Chatham School District, the Organized Village of Kake, and various other organizations, Tribal governments, and Alaska Native corporations. This level of support ensures participants can benefit from shared regional opportunities while still working in support of their

PHOTO TAKEN BY LEE HOUSE/SUSTAINABLE SOUTHEAST PARTNERSHIP

An Alaskan Youth Stewards crew based on Prince of Wales Island identified and inventoried ‘monument’ trees that meet the criteria for cultural uses such as carving totem poles or dugout canoes.

communities’ specific needs. Through Indigenous stewardship practices, AYS shifts the management of lands and resources in Southeast Alaska to those local to the area.

When AYS was imagined, the hope was that the program would work in tandem with existing forestry partners, such as the Klawock Indigenous Stewards Forest Partnership (KISFP) on Prince of Wales Island. Many members of KISFP were former timber professionals. The goal is for the forestry partners and AYS members to engage in shared projects such as stream restoration, community harvest efforts, forest inventorying, and a suite of other regenerative forestry projects. This concept, buttressed by the support, mentorship, and training offered through partners, was designed to create laddered career pathway opportunities by which youth could “graduate” from the AYS programs into stewardship careers through their community Tribal and natural resource agencies, state agencies, and federal agencies, such as the FS, are creating local career paths for local youth.

Under the direction of Tlingit and Haida, the AYS program aims to give rural youth on-the-job experiential education and training to take care of their lands, waters, and communities. Tribes hold an immense amount of traditional ecological knowledge that has been passed down for generations. Program oversight by Tlingit and Haida ensures the AYS is Indigenous-led and helps em-

power communities to reclaim management of their resources now and for the future. Tlingit and Haida also leads the Seacoast Indigenous Guardians Network (SIGN) that aspires to provide Tribes throughout Southeast Alaska with the tools they need to steward and restore balance to their ancestral homelands.

In the long term, SIGN hopes to complement the AYS by developing career pathway opportunities for youth crew members and building the capacity of existing programs housed within Tribal offices across Southeast Alaska, many of which have been increasingly centered on resource management and protection. More than a paycheck and physical work outside, AYS is about building capacity, confidence, pride, and a future generation of environmental and cultural leaders. WF Michael Mausbach is the workforce development catalyst with Sustainable Southeast Partnership and Spruce Root, Inc. and can be reached at michael@ spruceroot.org. Lee House is the southeast Alaska sustainability strategy storytelling specialist with Sustainable Southeast Partnership and can be reached at lee@sitkawild.org. S’eiltín Kaylah Duncan is a communications catalyst with Sustainable Southeast Partnership and can be reached at kaylah@spruceroot.org.

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 7

Non-Traditional Students as a Source for the Future Forestry Workforce

By Gene McCaul

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raditionally, higher education students were those under age 24, single, and in part or wholly dependent upon their parents for support as they completed their chosen education pathway before entering the workforce. This was considered the norm, and my case and experience when I was in college.

Anyone who didn’t fit this basic definition was considered “non-traditional.”

However, according to a 2015 report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 74 percent of higher-ed students are now classified as non-traditional, an increase from 70 percent in 2011 (https://tinyurl.com/ykenjc7k).

Perhaps the non-traditional student is the traditional student of today.

Defining or classifying non-traditional students isn’t easy since their demographic encompasses everyone over age 24, are independent, and span the whole range of relationships and experiences.

As such, these students are much more diverse than traditional students, which is proving a challenge for higher education institutions to meet their diverse needs.

Much has been written about these needs but for our purposes, what are some characteristics of this group and what does it mean for our future workforce?

What non-traditional students bring to forestry While these non-traditional students are diverse, they do share some charac-

teristics that are important to consider and utilize in our industry. First and foremost, these students have found or decided what career they want to pursue in life. Most have worked in one or more fields and decided it wasn’t for them or they are ready for a change. This means they are ready to learn and contribute to our industry with enthusiasm. Second,

stress to accomplish a mission or task, knowledge of logistics and interdisciplinary cooperation, and following orders are among these skills. Many have specialized training in equipment, maintenance, medical, leadership, or other areas.

So, what does this mean for our future workforce? Looking at the demographics of our current workforce compared to the total workforce shows an imbalance.

Specifically, we have an older workforce.

For ages 45 and up, we are well above the average with a significant drop in the 35–44-year age group. As the older

SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS 2022 https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm

The forestry workforce is heavily skewed toward older professionals. In anticipation of these older professionals retiring, younger workers are needed to fill these vacancies, especially the management roles.

most have at least some college education, making them well equipped to be successful in school and in the workforce. Some already have a college degree, giving them knowledge and skills outside our industry, such as management, business, social science, or other sciences, that can prove useful. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, they have work and life experience that equips them to fit in with our workforce. Many have worked part-time or full-time in fire or trails, as park aides, or other natural resource related fields, meaning they already have experience in the field by the time they return to school to pursue a forestry degree.

Based on my recent teaching experience, a large subset, 20 percent or more, of these students have military experience as well. These students have a wealth of knowledge and skills that a typical traditional student doesn’t have.

Being able to work in teams and/or under

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segments of the workforce retire over the next 5-20 years or so, there will be an increasing need for people to fill their shoes, especially when it comes to management roles. This is where non-traditional students can be very beneficial.

At Green River College, where I taught for the past seven years, just over half of all the students were age 30 or above when they started, meaning they are helping fill the 35-44-year age gap when they enter the workforce. Many had management experience and years of work experience, making the transition to natural resource management much easier and swifter than that of a traditional student.

However, these students won’t just fill management roles. They will also bring diverse experiences and skills into the natural resources workforce that benefits our industry by reducing or eliminating the need to provide additional training.

For example, imagine hiring a person who

has overseen a kitchen in a restaurant or managed a construction crew to run a planting crew. They already understand much of what is involved and will require less training and be able to accomplish a planting plan effectively and efficiently.

Another critical function non-traditional students can help fill is in public relations. Some already have experience in this area or are interested in using their new education in this area, but more importantly they already have a connection to people outside our industry. They don’t lose those connections

when they graduate, and they can help to educate the public about what we do and how we do it. My experience with these students shows they understand the importance of educating the public as they were once part of that group and are interested in sharing what they have learned with others.

In many ways the non-traditional student should be considered a boon to the field of natural resources. They have much to offer and are eager to contribute to the success of the businesses and agencies they go to work for. Employers

are finding this diversity of knowledge and experiences beneficial in filling gaps as the older workers retire. This is not to say the traditional students aren’t needed and useful but let us consider that the majority of higher education students are now non-traditional and make use of the skills and abilities they bring as well. WF Gene McCaul is a retired instructor at Green River College, which is located in Auburn, Washington. A WSSAF member, he can be reached at mccauls1234@msn. com.

High School YESS Crews Gained Hands-on Learning and Work Experience This Summer

By Heather Spalding and Chelsea Trout

ston Fire District, and Sierra Pacific Industries. The students worked in small groups to create final pren the 2023 Youth Engaged in sentations that demonstrated their Sustainable Systems (YESS) learning. The class was thrilled that program, high school students the mayor of Tumwater was able to across Washington State earned attend their final presentations. credit while building their skills and On the other side of the state, exploring natural resource careers. students in the Yakima School District Over five to six summer weeks, class and Mid-Columbia Fisheries Entime was paired with hands-on serhancement Group (MCFEG) YESS vice at community partner sites. At program heard from Department the end of the course, each student of Natural Resources Naches Work received a document that rated their PHOTO COURTESY OF PACIFIC EDUCATION INSTITUTE Center and US Forest Service staff Sno Isle Tech Center students were surrounded by about pathways to wildland firefightproficiency in entry-level industry tree frogs at the work site the dubbed ‘Frog Island.’ skills, which can be used to craft ing careers. Then they experienced their resumes and describe their the Riverview team and restoration bits of the day in the life of a firefighter, skills when applying for jobs. staff from the Snoqualmie Tribe to help including dozers and chainsaws. At the At the Glenwood School District in remove Himalayan blackberry and iden- end of the day, students dug a hand line.

Klickitat County, students created pretify and monitor native plants post-reStudents, their teachers, MCFEG, and sentations about their goals for a plot of moval. many other partners worked together land that the Washington Department of At the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center to give students in the Yakima School Natural Resources (DNR) “gave” them to and Snohomish Conservation District District YESS Program a “Careers in use as they created mock management YESS program near Granite Falls, stuConservation” experience where they plans. Pacific Education Institute (PEI) dents assessed water quality at different spent most of their summer in the Green Jobs staff stopped by and stusites, and their assessment coincided field learning and experiencing what it dents shared how they learned to spot with the emergence of hundreds, if means to work in conservation. tree disease as well as how many trees not thousands, of Pacific Northwest Students participating in this prothey extrapolated to be on each acre.

Tree Frogs brought out by recent rains. gram received a stipend of $1,800 and Some of their favorite days included a Students dubbed the site ‘Frog Island’ course credit toward graduation. This visit to a logging mill in Carson and an and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with program was made possible by the active harvest site where they learned their new friends while also learning Recreation and Conservation Office’s about the loader and processor. about water quality.

No Child Left Inside grant, the Dawkins PEI Green Jobs staff also visited Tumwater’s first-year YESS program Charitable Trust, and The Russell Famthe YESS Program with the Riverview included site visits to employers that ily Foundation for providing funding so School District in King County and focus on forest health. Students visited that each student could earn an $1,800 Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust with staff from the City of Tumwater, stipend for full participation. WF along the Tolt River. They worked with Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, North Thur-

I

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 9

A Ground-Up Approach to Building an Equitable and Sustainable Forest Workforce

By Manuel Machado and Emily Jane Davis

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cross the Pacific Northwest, much of the physically demanding and ecologically important work of reforestation, precommercial hand thinning, Manuel Machado manual herbicide application, and slash piling and burning is performed by a workforce of Latinx US citizens, foreign temporary laborers on H-2B visas, and undocEmily Jane Davis umented workers.

This labor-intensive forest and fire workforce is essential to accomplishing the goals outlined in the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS) Wildfire Crisis Strategy (2022) that aims to treat an additional 50 million acres of federal, state, tribal, and private lands in the western US over the next decade to reduce wildfire risk and restore ecological resiliency.

The need for this “forestry services” work is also recognized in recent legislation, such as the Infrastructure

Investment and Jobs Act (2021) and the Inflation Reduction Act (2023), that allocate billions of dollars of federal funding for ecosystem restoration and wildfire mitigation projects.

Providing funding is the first step to getting the work done. However, forestry services workers face challenges sustained by a combination of legal policies, immigration law, and systemic practices that prevent the workforce from growing at the capacity needed to implement these activities at the pace and scale the USFS has proposed. If we want to grow an equitable and sustainable workforce, we must understand the needs of this often-marginalized workforce, invest in workers themselves, and build solidarity across place, race, and class.

Oregon’s labor-intensive Latinx forest workforce In Oregon, there are approximately 8,000 forest workers performing labor-intensive forest and fire stewardship work. A large majority reside in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley, but it’s not uncommon for workers to travel hundreds of miles across the West for work. Hidden from the public eye and working deep in the forest, these workers can face labor violations and unsafe working conditions

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stemming from federal agency contracting practices and disempowering immigration structures.

Over 60 percent of Oregon’s forests are federally owned, which makes the USFS the primary contractor of forestry services. Contractors bid on projects solicited by the USFS by submitting a proposal or a bid for a project. USFS contracting officers rank each bid based on a variety of different factors and award the contract to the “best value” proposal. This bidding process is often effective at securing a low cost per forest acre treated for the USFS, but also can drive contractors to compete to offer the lowest price bid.

The consequences of contractors cutting down on costs and taking on more work are often felt at the expense of their own workers. Workers in this industry report wage theft and violations of safety procedures. Wage theft can play out through illegal deductions, unpaid overtime hours, or employers purposefully misclassifying workers for lower-paying jobs. Some workers report having to pay for their own personal protection equipment, which should be provided by the employer. Since there is no federally standardized training program for labor-intensive forestry work, contractors are required to provide their own training to workers. To save on costs and time, some of these trainings are inadequate to prevent work-related injuries and can lower the quality of work.

Labor laws, which are supposed to protect forest workers, are difficult to enforce because there can be communication gaps between the USFS, which oversees contract compliance on federal lands, and the US Department of Labor (DoL), which is responsible for investigating violations and enforcing labor laws. Although USFS contracting officers conduct routine labor standard interviews with forest workers, language barriers may make it difficult to ascertain what workers are experiencing.

For the DoL to investigate an issue, a formal labor complaint must be made by a USFS contracting officer or a forest worker.

For H-2B visa workers in this industry,

workers. This program will the power disparity between offer participants specialized employer and visa holder training, one-on-one techlikely disempowers temporary nical business assistance, workers from speaking out and connections to local against workplace violations resources, organizations, and and exercising their rights. peer networks that support Workers on temporary visas forestry services business depend on their employer to development. Supporting the sponsor their visa and run the transition of forest workers to risk of not being rehired the small business owners and following season should they other roles in the forest can choose to speak out and exhelp nurture a forestry indusercise their rights. This affects try that is more diversified, the working conditions of all sustainable, and resilient. This forest workers, as US citizens program is informed by reand permanent legal residents search about the opportunities also refrain from speaking out and challenges facing forest for fear of retaliation against workers, conducted as part of viséd relatives and friends. a USDA Agriculture and Food Over the past decade, Research Initiative project that there has been a 650 percent includes Oregon State Univerincrease in the amount of PHOTO COURTESY OF MANUEL MACHADO sity, University of Oregon, the H-2B visa workers employed in Martha Valle Hernandez, a promotora de salud with the Lomakatsi Oregon’s forests. H-2B workers Restoration Project, talks about workplace safety with a forest worker. Western Rural Development Center, and Lomakatsi. now amount to approximately to access information about their legal half of the total forest workers employed Solidarity as workforce development rights on their own time and without fear in forestry services. These workers are of retaliation from their employer.

The forestry services workforce recruited from Mexico and Central Lomakatsi also works with forest workplays an essential role in preserving the American countries such as Guatemala. ers to provide them opportunities to learn healthy ecosystems and forests needed They frequently come from impoverished new skills on the job, such as ecological to create jobs, improve public health, regions or indigenous communities, surveys and monitoring data collection. and provide a buffer from wildfires and and may speak Mam, Mixteco, Triqui, They also help “incubate” small Tribal other adverse effects of climate change. or Purépecha as their primary language. and Latinx-owned businesses by working Building solidarity with these workers Upon arriving to the U.S., these temwith them to optimize their business for by recognizing their contributions to porary foreign laborers rarely receive government procurement, and subcontheir communities and involving them training or information about their legal tracting with them to provide them with in policy making is a critical component working rights and resources available formative business experience as they of growing an equitable and sustainable to support them, which makes them less scale up to work on larger contracts. forestry workforce. likely to question their working condiTo help employers create safer workLatinx workers make tremendous ecotions or seek assistance. places for forest workers, Associated logical, economic, and cultural contribuInvesting in the workers Oregon Loggers Inc. is collaborating with tions to their communities in the Pacific Oregon’s SAIF Corporation, a nonprofMany of the aforementioned challengNorthwest. These contributions are often it workers’ compensation insurance es must be addressed with policy changes undermined by racial stereotypes of company, and Oregon OSHA to create at the state and federal level, but solutions “hard-working immigrants” and workers safety checklists and training templates implemented at the local level can also Continued on page 23 in English and Spanish that employers help connect workers to resources and can readily use. Another feature of this opportunities to advance in their careers. collaboration is to help employers naviThe Promotora Program, developed by gate the process for obtaining and using the former Northwest Forest Worker Cenworkers’ compensation insurance. ter and now managed by the Lomakatsi The Hands on the Land project is Restoration Project, employs promotoras developing Oportunidades en el Bosque de salud (community health workers) to (Opportunities in the Woods) in collabdeliver trainings and resources in Spanish oration with Oregon State University about safety and workplace rights to Extension, Lomakatsi, and Rural Develforest workers in the Rogue Valley. These opment Initiatives. Oportunidades is a interactions typically occur outside of culturally appropriate, learner-centric working hours and in places that workers entrepreneurship training program frequent in their communities, thereby delivered in Spanish for Latinx forest providing them with the opportunity WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 11

The Afognak Island Reforestation Project: A Case Study on Why a Local, Robust Forestry Workforce is Necessary

By Keith Coulter

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laska is a large state with many distinct forested regions, which results in having to customize forest management activities to each region.

For example, following a harvest in the Southeast and Interior, landowners can typically rely on successful natural regeneration and don’t generally require labor for hand planting.

While in the Southwest, hand planting is a necessity to ensure adequate stocking levels.

However, all these regions need forestry services, such as hand crews, for intensive pre-commercial thinning programs.

Additionally, private landowner groups (e.g., Native Corporations) and public land management agencies appear to be shifting their focus from extractive forest products to other management avenues such as managing for wildfire resiliency, biomass, carbon sequestration, or forest health and restoration. These management focuses also require custodial forest management steps that demand a strong, regionally available and cost-competitive workforce to complete management objectives.

Those of us who have worked in the forestry industry for multiple decades and in various states have observed that workforce development issues seem to trail and exacerbate themselves when the mainstay of any forestry-related

sector starts to lose its base. That is, an active forest products industry or forest management and timber harvesting base, consisting of reliably contracted timber sales that are available year after year, attract investment in people and infrastructure. If that sector shrinks, the affiliated industries supporting these activities, such as forestry services, tend to disappear. This leaves the region having to provide training from the ground up, whereas in the past workers would learn various trades on the job as they ascended through the ranks during long-term careers within a regionally stable forest products industry.

The issue that forest managers, whether state, federal, or Native, must navigate is where to find the workforce to perform this work. Here I’ll share my experience as the manager of the Afognak Island reforestation project and workforce challenges that complicated carrying out this project.

Reforestation on Afognak Island In 2010, as part of my land manager duties, I developed an artificial reforestation program for several Native Corporations on Afognak Island; Afognak Island is part of the Kodiak Archipelago that stretches into the Gulf of Alaska. By the end of the project over 4.1 million seedlings were hand planted across approximately 14,000 acres. There is no association or group that maintains a directory of forestry services companies operating in or located in Alaska, which meant I had to source planting contractors from

12 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

scratch. There were several requirements the contractor had to meet.

• The contractor needed to handle industrial-scale planting rates up to 500,000 seedlings/season in a remote setting and be available every spring (late April through May) when the temperatures were still cool, the insects not yet violently intrusive, and the surrounding vegetation was still “down.”

• A planting contractor was also required to be cost-competitive, insured, and staffed with professional tree planters accustomed to completing large reforestation tasks.

• The contractor was expected to supply an adequately sized staff accustomed to the rigors of planting well over 1,000 container-type seedlings per day per individual on both cable- and shovel-harvested units. Additionally, workers would be away from their families for the entirety of the project, living in bunk-type housing, and working six or more days/ week in all weather conditions.

Cost control was crucial to the success of this project. By the time a seedling was grown, packaged, shipped, and planted on Afognak Island, the cost is over one dollar/seedling. And once on the island, there were no options but to plant the seedlings or suffer massive losses both forestry-wise and budget-wise. Overall, there were few options in Alaska from which to source this type of cost-competitive labor, and few local labor options existed. We approached local people advertising the availability of tree planting jobs, yet they were uninterested in doing this type of work.

In my search for contractors, I focused on locations where the industry is still strong and supported by the many affiliated businesses. Oregon was the obvious region to source qualified contractors and labor. We sourced and hired an Oregon-based contractor who worked with us on this decade-long project. However, when I developed the reforestation project, I hadn’t anticipated several issues, aside from the operational demands of tree planting, that had to be considered.

At times over the course of the 10year project, the contractor struggled

with certain federal political immigration policies that imposed restrictive travel and documentation requirements on agricultural visa workers. This was (and remains) a huge stumbling block. Although these workers were legal, many were reluctant to travel through the necessary Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at airports because they feared being detained.

Many could not speak English very well and were concerned they would not be able to readily converse with immigration authorities to discuss their individual work status.

Companies in the agriculture and forestry sectors who use migrant labor will tell you the same thing: Migrant labor are generally the only individuals willing to accomplish this type of difficult work, and without them, low-cost food and services would cease to exist. The tree planters hired for the work on Afognak Island frequently averaged around $500/ day, as they were paid by-the-tree; this is not “work for low pay.”

What is needed to develop a workforce Workforce development discussions may reenergize the progress being made in Alaska where the forest products industry can be characterized as being in a transition period. (See “US Forest Service, State of Alaska sign a $4 million agreement to complete young growth inventory, job training and development in Southeast Alaska” https://tinyurl. com/3b9y8r7f.) However, in my experience, Alaska will struggle developing a forestry workforce for several reasons.

Individuals hoping to start businesses in these sectors will likely face hurdles such as: • maintaining consistent year-round (or at least viable seasonal) workflow; • staffing levels that are adequate to handle large-scale projects; • reliably forecasting what upcoming work would be available year after year;

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KEITH COULTER

Rue Forest Contracting, which is based in Salem, Oregon, and owned by Hernan Lupian, had the logistical capabilities and staff expertise for the decade-long artificial reforestation project on Afognak Island. Crews hand planted over 4.1 million seedlings across approximately 14,000 acres.

• sourcing trained and competent staff; • remaining cost competitive against out-of-state larger and more established firms; and • steep capital-intensive barriers to entry and high financial risk.

I expect there will be smaller firms able to handle “boutique” projects; however, there should remain some focus on developing industrial-scale forestry services or else there will continue to be outsourcing to out-of-state contracting services. One solution may be tying this type of business to larger, better-funded and regionally established Native

Corporations that could more readily weather the ups and downs of a natural resource-related business cycle, versus smaller individual owner/operators. Going forward, the strength of Alaska’s forestry sector will depend on public policy direction(s) and what will be embraced by the public. WF Keith Coulter consults for several Alaska Native Regional Corporations on land management issues and is based out of Glennallen. An AKSAF member, he can be reached at afognakkfp@gmail.com.

WSSAF 2024 Annual Meeting Forest Practices Act 50th Anniversary: Past, Present, and Future Hosted by the Southwest SAF Chapter April 3-5, 2024 – Aberdeen, WA Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Forest Practices Act, and in recognition of this anniversary, the annual meeting will explore how this significant piece of legislation changed forest management in Washington State.

The program will feature a student mentoring roundtable, a poster session, and student activity organized by the Grays Harbor College SAF student chapter on Wednesday night. Thursday will be a full day of presentations and panels, followed by the WSSAF business meeting and awards dinner. And the meeting concludes on Friday with a Tree Farmer Inspector breakfast hosted by the Washington Tree Farm Program and a field trip.

Watch the next issue of the Western Forester and your inbox for program and registration information in early 2024. Questions or want to volunteer to be on a committee? Email sw.wa.saf@gmail.com. WF WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 13

Workforce Considerations for Seedling Production in the Western US

By Matthew Aghai and Gabriel Altieri

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he last half century of forest nursery seedling production has seen boom-and-bust cycles of funding, innovation, and workforce development. Timber and Matthew Aghai fiber plantations have served as the primary end market, and compliance-based reforestation has remained the main consumer of forest nursery products in the western US Gabriel Altieri by volume. However, demand is significantly exceeding current seedling production

capabilities as myriad landowners in the West have experienced catastrophic wildfire, with over 50 million acres burned in the last decade.

When comparing the average stocking density per acre to the amount of land requiring reforestation, more than a billion seedlings are PHOTO COURTESY OF MAST REFORESTATION needed to address Seedling production remains a labor-intensive process at every backlogged acreage stage, from container filling, seed sow, thinning, transplanting, according to various and pack-out, and it’s essential to develop a workforce that isn’t governmental and seasonal or part-time. other analyses. on regional harvesting schedules tied to Until recently, seedling production mill demand and log prices, with the occapacity was relatively static, depending casional wildfire-driven event(s) causing variation among select (large private) nurseries. As wildfire severity continues to impact large swaths of land across the West, millions of acres of forest land are and will be experiencing reforestation work. This demand has increased pressure on an already constrained nursery infrastructure and lacking workforce to meet the scale of the problem. Additionally, the ability to produce nursery stock is geographically imbalanced. In 2021, ~165 million seedlings were produced in Oregon, Washington, and California, and only ~11 million were produced in the interior states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada) according to an annual survey published by the USDA Forest Service.

Production nurseries were founded on the backbone of timber-dominated economies, such as the expansion of timber operations in the 1930s, nationwide industrial expansion in the 1950s, and government incentivization for forest conservation in the 1980s. By the close of the 20th century, high-grading extraction industries began incorporating reforestation as a compliance requirement, while major land-management entities were experiencing reductions in timber value

14 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

as land productivity diminished. A return on investment in timber and fiber economies is linked to productivity, rotation length, and cost of management per acre, which factored into regional investment declines. Due to high risk and reduced value, many nurseries were phased out or shuttered due to declining demand– this was more acute in the interior (dry) forest regions.

Key constraints With nursery operations firmly entrenched at the beginning of the reforestation pipeline, investments in site preparation, outplanting, and thinning are line items that won’t see a return on investment for decades. Therefore, the incentive to reduce the cost of these inputs is ever-present. On one hand, surviving forest nurseries have been extremely creative and efficient in developing solutions to meet production demands at low price points. On the other hand, the low margins have resulted in infrastructure challenges such as deferred maintenance, lack of innovation, and dated equipment, putting the majority burden on the nursery workforce. This is a systemic condition, and as both private and public nurseries saw reduced margins, we witnessed a divestment from innovation and progress that resulted in working environments falling decades behind agriculture/ horticulture industries.

Fortunately, all sectors are experiencing traction toward funding nursery infrastructure through government subsidies and interest from capital markets, likely yielding vital maintenance and new infrastructure at existing nursery facilities. Ideally, infrastructure modernization will include automated solutions that improve the inefficiency of manual production systems, employee experience, and seedling quality. All

Providing information about trees and forests

Tom Hanson Tom.Hanson@ArborInfo.com

206 300 9711 www.arborinfo.com

that considered, the primary challenge needed to scale up nursery production capacity in the western US still exists–a substantial increase in both expert and seasonal workforce.

Perspectives on the labor force There are several classes of workers that are required to get seedling products over the line, including but not limited to: business manager(s), grower(s), seed procurement and processing technician(s), maintenance crew(s), farm laborer(s), and seasonal laborer(s).

These essential contributors ensure the seedling supply chain can run efficiently on a coordinated timeline. As the expert workforce has begun to retire, bottlenecks are developing in the supply chain for positions that require long-term apprenticeship and on-site experience.

Producing high-quality nursery stock for reforestation is a full-time commitment, with tending requirements linked to seasonality. Throughout the year, production teams work relentlessly on seed processing, seedling production,

transport logistics, or facilities maintenance, among other critical elements of the supply chain. To add to the challenge, outplanting timing can be a moving target, with an unpredictable arrival of autumn precipitation and persistence of spring snowpacks limiting the forecasting of seedling pack-out and shipment to downstream stakeholders. In other words, producing seedlings on time, to a specified size and quality, and ensuring that they are safely packed for mobilization is challenging and often overlooked.

We need to create working conditions that are favorable for a workforce that may not be tied to the outcomes of the final product. If workers are not part of the ownership of a nursery, which is often the case with government and corporate-run nurseries, what incentivizes employees to remain attentive to a crop that requires care 24/7, aside from wage?

We must also acknowledge that calls for mass mobilization of volunteer armies and unconventional labor (e.g.

Continued on page 21

Save the Date—2024 PNW Leadership Conference Fostering a Vibrant Forestry Community Hosted by Oregon SAF and Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society February 1-2, 2024 Wilsonville Conference Center, Wilsonville, OR

Whether you are a student, technician, manager, researcher, educator, or an engaged retiree, developing and strengthening your leadership abilities is as important as staying abreast of the latest research. Workplace dynamics are always changing; Collaboration is being prioritized, and good leaders must remain flexible and adaptive.

The 2024 PNW Leadership Conference features a program that will cover a range of situations employees may find themselves in throughout their career: from the transition as an early professional, learning how to navigate conflict, developing productive collaborations, to strengthening leadership abilities. Engaging group discussions will highlight how to advocate for yourself when seeking more responsibilities and promotions, and how to gracefully exit when it’s time to seek opportunities elsewhere. The program will also include several networking sessions and opportunities for students and early-career members to connect and engage with professionals.

Student scholarships will be available to help cover the costs of attending this conference.

Registration Early bird registration is open through January 10. After January 10, registration prices will increase by $50 for professionals, but no change for students.

Online registration closes January 19.

SAF and TWS Members $250 • Non-SAF and TWS Members $350 • Students $50 To view the full agenda and register, visit: https://forestry.org/2024-pnw-saf-leadership-conference/ WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 15

in 2007. Credit is due to Priscilla Morris, Milling Legislation to (Hopefully) the Wood Biomass & Forest Stewardcoordinator with the USDA Forest Jump-Start Workforce Growth in Alaska ship Service, who suggested that we look at

By Jeremy Douse

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n Alaska, the forest industry is quite small compared to those in Oregon and Washington State. A 2015 publication by University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research estimated total direct employment in Alaska’s forestry sector at 1,580 positions. Senate Bill 87 that passed earlier this year—“An Act relating to a lumber grading training program and lumber grading certificates; relating to use of lumber graded and certified by a person holding a lumber grading training program certificate; and providing for an effective date”—is a beginning piece for implementing Governor Mike Dunleavy’s vision of growing the industry. We’re trying to create more

demand for locally produced forest products, which hopefully will lead to growing the forestry workforce.

Follow the wood Historically, we have imported most of the wood we use from Canada and the Pacific Northwest. We have mills but, aside from a few exceptions, they tend to be smaller and don’t produce the volume needed to participate in grading agencies, such as the Western Wood Products Association. Senate Bill 87 tasks the Division of Forestry & Fire Protection to create a local use lumber program that will allow small mills and mobile mills to self-certify the three grades of lumber used in residential construction: Number 2 and better, Number 3, and a stud grade.

The program is based upon the Wisconsin Local Use Dimension Lumber grading certification that was established

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their local use lumber program. In 2021, I visited Wisconsin to learn about their program and went through their mill training. Based upon what we learned, implementing it in Alaska seemed feasible. Governor Dunleavy originally proposed making it a program, but Senator Jesse Bjorkman from Nikiski advised to pass a law to make it a more solid program. Accompanying legislation was introduced in the Alaska House by Representative Jesse Sumner from Wasilla.

Mills were pretty excited about the proposed law and supported it. Prior to the passage of this legislation, they could only provide rough cut lumber, which had very limited applications such as building structures for people who could pay with cash. If homeowners need financing to build a house, they couldn’t use rough cut lumber. The hope is that once the state rolls out this local lumber use program, homeowners can get financing to build homes made with self-graded lumber. That will require some written exemptions into building codes, and we are talking to Alaska financing corporation about writing in the exemptions into those building codes.

In Wisconsin and New Hampshire, it’s written in their state building code that there’s an exemption for local use products so it can be done.

The home building association was also excited, which was a little bit more

surprising because that grade stamp comes with a lot of testing and a lot of quality control. Both off-the-road and onthe-road systems have a housing shortage and wood is expensive. Housing authorities for the Native organizations were also interested in the bill because wood is even more expensive for the off-thePHOTO COURTESY OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY road system. Most of Since the lumber used in residential construction is imported from the village corpora- Canada and the Pacific Northwest, the passage of Senate Bill 87 is tions in the forested anticipated to unlock the production capacity of small sawmills to fulfill internal demand. Increasing demand for forest products will, part of the state hopefully, lead to growing the forestry workforce. have a resource they could be using more lumber, there will be more opporand have some type of small mill. If they tunities for loggers to provide the timber, had individuals who could get certified, and more opportunities for log truck they could start logging locally and a mill drivers to deliver material to these small operator could provide product for use in mills. Another piece of this local use lumtheir home construction. They also have ber program is providing opportunities people who need work. for younger loggers and log truck drivers since our current workforce is aging Building the workforce out. It is our intent to eventually make This program isn’t going to have an it easier for loggers and truck drivers to enormous splash, because we recognize enter the workforce and participate in that we don’t have a big forest industry in local markets.

Alaska. However, there is some capacity Additionally, there is potential for the that we’re not tapping into, and it’s those construction industry to grow. We have small mill operators. If they can mill a serious housing shortage and if there’s

more local lumber available, construction companies can hire more people to build these needed houses.

And we can’t ignore the forestry angle since we need well-managed forests as a source of this local lumber. We need more foresters but they’re hard to find in Alaska so we’re having to import foresters up here. Could this local use lumber program spark an interest in young people to get interested in natural resources, logging, or milling? That’s a bigger question we won’t have an answer to in the short term. WF Jeremy Douse is the northern region forester with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry & Fire Protection. An AKSAF member and education chair, he can be reached at jeremy.douse@alaska.gov or (907) 4512670.

Implementing and Expanding the Wisconsin model Our program will be based upon Wisconsin’s program. A cooperative extension service forester will provide the training to visually grade to those three grades. Mill owners will receive certification of the six different aspects of the wood that they have to grade out.

After the passage of the bill, we received phone calls from mill owners, located primarily on the Kenai Peninsula and in the Southeast, asking when they take the class and get certified. They are already getting calls about getting this local product!

We’re talking about the potential for more add-on training such as kiln drying since we don’t have a lot of kilns in Alaska.

I’m currently working with the cooperative extension service for a job description and hopefully by the time you’re reading this, we will have a person hired. With this position affiliated with the University of Alaska, I’m hopeful it will create a lot more training opportunities.

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 17

provements and face constraints linked The True Cost of Seed: Implications on to labor and costs. We must acknowledge true costs of wild seed collection and Workforce Development in the Western US the how that impacts collective efforts to

By Matthew Aghai, Shanna Hobbs, and Felicia Froton

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ith the recent influx of interest, funding, and calls for large-scale reforestation on public and private lands, western forestry stakeholders Matthew Aghai are in a precarious position regarding seed availability. The shortages in seed supply are well documented in academic journals, technical articles, and pop culture publications, with the Shanna Hobbs majority of the focus on low supplies, lack of collectors, loss of botanical and institutional knowledge, and impacts of climate change.

As efforts increase, we must acknowledge Felicia Froton that the crux of the problem isn’t the availability of seed for common commercial species in prime timber-producing regions. Rather, it’s the availability of seed from a diverse suite of species and elevations from all our forested regions in the West. These species represent the functional diversity of systems needed to replant for major

activities like compliance reforestation following harvest, post-wildfire restoration, conservation, afforestation, and many additional applications. Industrial landowners—specifically Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and some agencies—have invested in robust tree improvement programs and orchards that will allow them to weather the turbulence that comes with climate change impacting timber and fiber-producing land holdings. The remaining landscape of stakeholders is reliant on wild collections to address needs from specific geographies, species, and local provenance; and these collections are essential to address the growing reforestation need across our western forests in the coming century.

Ecologists and academics have well-documented that wildfires and climate change contribute to the loss of seed sources. Additionally, mast events— the synchronous production of bountiful seed-bearing cones by multiple trees— are infrequent and largely undocumented. Obtaining permits and land access continues to be a challenge due to the complex mosaic of ownerships across the western US, and the difficulty of navigating bureaucracies that hinder, and sometimes inhibit, the ability to collect. Efforts are being designed to address seed shortages, with comprehensive coordination allowing for broad stakeholder engagement. However, few organizations have turned this into measurable im-

18 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

mobilize legacy and novice workforces to address the scale and urgency required to meet this challenge.

Behind the scenes of seed collection Seed collection is both an art and science, requiring a basic understanding of seed-cone reproductive biology, and botanical knowledge for identification and timing considerations. Targeting appropriate species, stands, and regions is key to ensuring that outputs have pathways to sowing seedlings, addressing demand, or supplementing critical reserves.

Ongoing monitoring is the only way to identify crops and position collection crews effectively to reach remote forests and invest in labor-intensive work with positive outcomes. Timing is also critical: Too early and the seed hasn’t reached maturity, reducing viability; and too late and the cones open, releasing the seed into the wind.

Once crops are ready, a crew is deployed, sometimes with limited notice.

Cones are gathered by the bushel (eight dry gallons), then transported to a temporary storage facility. The bushels must be properly handled and stored before longhaul transportation to an extractory. Each step—whether conducted by a single entity or several in coordination—comes at a significant physical effort and cost. To think that this difficult and time-intensive work will be conducted without incentives is naive and disregards the efforts of the critical workforce behind the operation. Developing a sustainable “flywheel” will require economic models to incentivize each component appropriately.

To enumerate some of these components, three collection techniques are described below: (1) collection stations where individuals bring bushels to an organized and pre-established location; (2) precision collections targeting specific areas or stands; and (3) passive collections capitalizing on opportunities from felled trees during commercial operations. All collections start with determining cone ripeness through scouting broad swaths of forests.

Collection stations Collection stations are designated areas where pickers bring cones for a per-bush-

These typically occur on commerel fee, utilizing a ground-foraging cial ground and among plantations technique. The steps include: where seed provenance is likely well (1) Organize stations with necdocumented, but also highly homogessary equipment, documentation, enized. This logistically challenging permits, and contracts. method requires constant communi(2) Provide pickers sacks to fill with cation, the ability to rapidly mobilize cones and guidance on species and crews, and immense planning to collection locations. secure resources adjacent to logging (3) Pickers then bring filled bushels operations with competing timelines back to hosts for inspection and payand dependent costs. While valuable, ment, typically receiving $30-$75 per this method alone is inadequate to bushel, depending on species. meet the scale of needs required and (4) The station hosts periodically PHOTO COURTESY OF MAST REFORESTATION have limited utility for non-industrial sample cones for seed fill and quality, To accomplish large-scale reforestation, it all begins and temporarily store bushels in cool with seed, whether sourced from orchards or from the landowners. Orchard and passive dry areas on site. wild. If reforestation is ramped up, the seed collection collections can vary significantly and workforce will need to grow too to fulfill demand. are typically self-serving measures de(5) When ready, bushels are signed to meet landowner or coopertransported (often larger pickups with radic before ripening, thereby increasing ative contributor needs, respectively, trailers, with occasional use of semis) the need to collect from sub-standard and therefore are not enumerated here. to an extractory for processing. crops and increase processing needs, After the collection and transport Extractory and banking resulting in higher final costs per pound. activities are complete, the approximate The final step is processing at an exvalue of collected seed (2023 rates) is Passive collections and orchard tractory, requiring specialized skills and approximately $100/lb. for Douglas-fir, production equipment. This is typically overseen by $80/lb. for ponderosa pine, and $90/ Passive collections include coordinattechnical experts as seeds move from lb. for true fir. These are regional value ing harvest operations to strip cones from bushel to clean seed, through testing, to estimates for species collected at modfelled trees and orchard productions. seed bank. Costs include skilled individerate to high density from mostly mature stands in the Pacific Northwest and before processing costs are incurred.

Precision collections Precision collections have the widest range of applications and require extensive coordination to monitor for timing and access. Once cones are ready, collections are staged and a contracted crew is deployed to collect bushels, traditionally by tree climbing. Collection techniques vary by crew, species, and cone abundance. (Further details are beyond this article’s scope). The bushels are tagged and transported, usually to a temporary storage facility, before being hauled to an extractory. Typically, crews are contracted on a per tree by per bushel rate (additional costs for mobilization).

Thus, an approximate value derived from equitable precision operations is approximately $450/lb for Douglas-fir, $375 for ponderosa pine, and $250/lb for true fir, with costs increasing to $600-$800/lb for smaller cones. Costs incurred by collecting agents may be significantly higher if seed fill is low or damaged, or if there are fluctuations in necessary logistical components (transport, contractor operational rates, storage). As the effects of climate change progress, cone abortion events become more common and spoWESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 19

uals, labor teams, machinery and kiln runtime and maintenance, laboratory work to ensure viability and quality, and tracking and handling throughout.

Depending on lot size, extraction and cleaning can take multiple weeks and cost an additional $50-150 per pound (not including testing).

The outlook This entire process—from identifying cones to physical collection activities to processing—involves stakeholders of varying expertise. This includes labor for scouting and reporting crop ripeness, professionals to secure land access and collection permits, collectors (climbers, ground support, ground collections), transportation and logistics management, support crew, and nursery staff.

These stakeholders, including contracted labor, come from private and public agencies spanning state, federal, and Tribal entities.

A thorough accounting of the many steps required for seed collection reflects

the true cost at the seed bank and is important for incentivizing workforce expansion across the supply chain. Seed costs in the West appear to be suppressed or low, especially in comparison to Canadian markets that collect and distribute seed based on direct recovery of costs.

When comparing the listed prices of key conifers in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, seed value in Canada appeared, on average, 55 percent higher (per pound) as of 2021. Properly priced seed would generate sustaining economic impacts for the workforce supporting procurement, alleviate constraints sourcing labor, and further enable banking of diverse species across wider geographies.

The growing movement requiring action toward climate change provides optimism that sourcing labor across the seed supply chain will be met with more urgency and less friction. However, the costs will need to be passed to consumers and wages must reflect the value of the seed collected and the skill and effort involved in obtaining it successfully. In

addition to economic incentives, it is imperative to generate awareness and enthusiasm for professionals across skill levels and demographics. This can be achieved through social campaigns and updated curricula covering the basics of cone/seed production and procurement for current and future forest management professionals. Addressing low seed supplies is not impossible, but it will take a concerted effort among existing and emerging stakeholders to engage, learn, and advocate for a stronger marketplace and improved supply chain. WF Matthew Aghai is the vice president of research and development with Mast Reforestation and can be reached at matthew@mastreforest.com. Shanna Hobbs is a product manager with Mast Reforestation and can be reached at shanna.h@mastreforest.com. Felicia Froton is a seed program manager with Mast Reforestation and can be reached at felicia.f@mastreforest.com.

Investing in Our Workforce: The Importance of DEI

By Liz Marzolf

A

frequent topic at forestry industry forums and for leadership teams across the country is the long-term workforce challenges facing our industry. As competition for talent remains fierce and rural economic development lags behind our nation’s urban core, we need to work together to develop a sustainable talent pool. There is no one solution, however, there is a larger talent pool that our industry has not historically attracted or retained.

We see this as a big opportunity, which is why it is a key pillar of our diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) strategy.

Envy the Foresters How can an industry that boasts some of the most satisfied workers in the nation—the Washington Post article on a recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey stated that forestry workers “…perform the happiest, most meaningful work on earth”—is struggling to attract talent?

One issue is we have lots of jobs that are not well known to or understood

by potential job candidates. Another is that we don’t always target prospective employees with a broader range of academic or professional experience.

Larger overarching issues are we’re simply not on the radar for enough job seekers, including those who don’t think there are or don’t see others who look like them working in our industry.

Expanding our industry’s talent pipeline requires a systems approach.

That is, all the stakeholders that impact our workforce supply—universities, colleges, trade schools, industry and trade organizations, government programs, policymakers, and forest product companies—need to work together if we want to broaden our reach.

Investing in the Future of Forestry Port Blakely is a small company (< 100 employees), and we don’t hire often, but when we do, we want access to as strong a talent pool as possible. Our forestry roots run five generations deep in the Pacific Northwest, and we are known as a good employer and a convener on tough forestry issues, so we saw

20 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

an opportunity to bring people together on this topic. We also wanted to learn from the work already being done and identify partnership opportunities.

Earlier this year, our “Investing in the Future of Forestry” series debuted.

We’ve held two forums to date and have received lots of positive feedback. The most recent session featured SAF’s own Terry Baker who spoke to the organization’s DEI efforts. (https://portblakely. com/news/2023/investing-in-the-future-of-forestry-building-a-thrivingworkforce) Going forward, we plan to offer quarterly sessions with a variety of speakers.

If you’re interested in participating, send an email to HR@portblakely.com and we’ll add you to our invite list.

Ultimately, our goal is to inspire action at the individual and collective level so that together we can invest in the success of our workforce and our industry. WF Liz Marzolf is the chief people officer for Port Blakely. She can be reached at lmarzolf@portblakely.com.

Workforce Considerations for Seedling Production in the Western US Continued from page 15

conservations corps, prisoners) to address employment shortages are misguided and not applicable to nursery work.

In the past, successful national programs were mandated and funded in response to climate and societal emergencies (e.g., the Dust Bowl and Great Recession, respectively) to promote workforce development for tree production and planting operations in the US. Between 1933 and 1941, Civilian Conservation Corps members were provided high wages, subsidized housing, meal programs, and schooling to incentivize and attract participants. Today, it will be critical to consider similar incentives to attract and retain quality employees for extended periods throughout the production season. However, with vacillating political will and pacing of large bureaucracies, it’s unclear if impactful solutions will materialize at the national level. The responsibility to scale workforce, while supporting workers’ needs, has largely fallen to the private sector with mixed results.

Strategic improvements to revitalize production Across the broader marketplace, to improve workflow, crop quality, and retention, nursery employees must be met with improvements to their working environments and employment benefits to reduce their risk of attrition. Seasonal and part-time employees are foundational to the labor-intensive components of production, including container filling, seed sow, thinning, transplanting, and pack-out. Each is a disjoint seasonal operation, and creating continuity is challenging, leading to risk of employment gaps. Systems for retaining these employees will require streamlining and easing the labor inputs with improved automation solutions and offering cross-training to facilitate transitioning to other facets of the business. The mechanics of administrative incentives are complex but also merit consideration, such as enrollment, benefits, and wage structures to improve the experience and incentive considerations cyclically instead of reactively.

To retain and grow an expert work-

force to meet reforestation demand, expert youth and incentivized workforces need to be developed through university programs and outreach. Another means to measurable impact is to improve the profit margins for nurseries to attract workers with increased wages. However, this is a two-way street. To command a competitive price with a margin that can sustain improvements to infrastructure, wage, and incentives, nurseries will need to offer improved or novel products, and/ or peripheral services to both a traditional timber-faceted consumer and those buying seedlings for other reforestation applications. This challenge will play out partly through innovation and partly through leadership from the traditional consumers who may have to revisit their pricing models and forecast a cost of seedlings that reflects contemporary market conditions.

To develop and maintain a robust seedling nursery workforce, it is crucial to address the vacancies created by the retirement and loss of skilled technical experts by backfilling positions and ensuring that the incoming workforce combines youthful vigor with practical, hands-on experience. One of the most pressing needs is for broader (cross-institutional) planning that is currently lacking in university programs across the western US. Additionally, there is no pipeline to bridge the gap from other sectors, such as agriculture, as the transition to tree seedling production is more

time-intensive and less seasonal, if charted along the crop lifecycle. Historically, retaining workers at forest nurseries has been challenging due to the reliance on temporary agricultural labor. This is primarily because the agricultural sector offers higher wages, allowing workers to earn with fewer hours due to shorter rotations of higher-value crops.

It is unclear if the evolution of a “new marketplace” for tree seedlings will drive and sustain these necessary changes, but the next few years will be pivotal. There is optimism that with increased government funding the emergence of natural capital markets, and the growing demand for reforestation, we are on the precipice of an economic revival for the production of tree seedlings for all reforestation projects.

As this need for reforestation continues to rise, it will become essential to develop innovative, incentive-based approaches to attract a skilled younger workforce, expand the issuance of migrant labor visas, rectify the true market value of seedlings, and improve nursery production infrastructure to increase the feasibility of meeting product demand. WF Matthew Aghai is the vice president of research and development with Mast Reforestation and can be reached at matthew@mastreforest.com. Gabriel Altieri is a biology specialist of the research and development team with Mast Reforestation and can be reached at gabriel.a@mastreforest.com.

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 21

Enjoy a Year of Washington Forestry We Remember Donald Philip Hanley June 18, 1947-September 2, 2023

If you’re looking to bring the forest into your office, kitchen, or workshop, the 2024 Tour of Washington Forestry calendar features a year of sustainable forestry. These calendars also make the perfect holiday gift for family and friends who can’t get to the forest as often as they’d like. The photographs were taken by WSSAF members, tree farmers, and tree farm inspectors.

We are asking for a $25 donation per calendar. Calendars may be ordered at https://www.watreefarm. org/. If you want to pay by check, please contact Elizabeth Ide at info@watreefarm. org, and she will email you an order form that can be mailed.

Thank you to the WSSAF members who volunteered their time to produce this calendar: Marisa Bass, Molly Darr, Jenny Knoth, Luke Semler, and Andrea Watts. WTFP volunteers included Margaret Ellis, Jon Matson, Rachel Mazzacavallo, David New, and Jenn Watts. WF

Dr. Donald Philip Hanley passed away on September 2, 2023, one day after he and his wife Kris celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. His mantra “Every day is a good day” and his positive attitude were an inspiration to all those who interacted with him during his fight with cancer. Don’s life was a testament to dedication, leadership, mentorship, and love for his family.

Don was born in the Bronx, New York, and moved to Van Nuys, California, when he was five. He loved playing baseball and being in the Scouts. In 1964, he earned his Eagle Scout for streamlining the camp food distribution while undertaking an unexpected leadership role.

Don’s love of Scouts fueled his passion for the outdoors and led him to study forestry at the University of Montana (UM). He obtained a bachelor of science in forestry from UM in 1969 and worked for a brief time for Anaconda Forest Products Company in Bonner, Montana. With the encouragement of his college professors, Don returned to UM to obtain a master of science in forest resource management.

While working on his master’s degree, Don met his wife, Kristina (Kris) Winter. They married soon after he finished his MS degree in 1973 and moved to Georgetown, California, where Don worked for the UC Berkeley Blodgett Experimental Forest. While working at Blodgett, he directed the management of the research forest, overseeing the research projects of Berkeley students. One of his most unique experiences was to arrange for and to participate in a friendly game of baseball between a team of UC Berkeley researchers and a team comprised of inmates from the Growler Honor Camp of Folsom Prison, who worked in the forest.

Don became a research forester for the University of Idaho beginning in 1974, and in

22 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

1978 he became the state extension forester, traveling across Idaho educating landowners on everything from timber management to Christmas trees. During their nine years in Moscow, Don obtained his PhD in forestry, and two daughters were born. Janelle joined the family in 1978, and Brenda was born in 1981.

In 1983, Don became an extension forestry professor at Washington State University (WSU), and for most of his career, Don educated natural resource professionals, students, private landowners, and the public on forestry-related matters. Being a WSU faculty member housed at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, Don was in a unique position to bring together the strengths of both universities (which is not easy—Cougars vs. Huskies). One example of his collaborative leadership was the Rural Technology Initiative (RTI) project, a research and outreach consortium of which Don was a codirector. RTI was created in 2000 with a federal grant to accelerate the implementation of new technologies and response to increasingly complex regulatory environments in rural forest resource-based communities.

Don authored over 130 extension bulletins, journal articles, and other outreach products on topics ranging from firewood economics to living snow fence design. Don’s opus was Silviculture for Washington Family Forests.

Don loved to educate groups both in the classroom and in the field. Even after 40+ years of teaching at field days, workshops, and other events, his enthusiasm and rapport with his audience never dimmed. One of his highlights was the eight-week “Coached Planning” short course that helped landowners write a stewardship plan to meet their personal forest management needs. Don was key to WSU volunteer training programs such as the Beach Watchers, Water Watchers, Steam Keepers, and the Shore Stewards.

Don was a member of the Society of American Foresters since 1973, a Certified Forester, a Fellow (2008), and a Golden Member (2023). Don served in multiple state positions, including chair of WSSAF from 2005-2007 and has led numerous state conventions.

Don’s contribution for organizing the annual Golden Member Luncheon at the Poodle Dog Restaurant was an annual highlight for himself and 100s of honored Golden members.

In addition to being passionate about forestry, Don was an avid rail fan and spent many hours trackside waiting for trains to pass. He counted and recorded the locomotive number for every engine he ever saw. If you ever wanted to know when a train came by, just ask Don! WF

2024 OR Chapter of The Wildlife Society Annual Meeting, Feb. 14-16, Hood River, OR. Contact: https://ortws.org/events/annualconference/.

Calendar of Events

86th Annual Oregon Logging Conference, Feb. 22-24, Eugene, OR. Contact: https:// oregonloggingconference.com/.

Environmental Forensics—Site Characterization and Remediation, Dec. 11-12, Live Remote Attendance. Contact: NWETC.

International Mass Timber Conference, March 26-28, Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR. Contact: https:// masstimberconference.com/.

2024 Western Region COFE Seminar, Jan. 11, 2024, Lebanon, OR. Contact: WFCA.

2024 WSSAF Annual Meeting, April 3-5, Grays Harbor College, Aberdeen, WA. Contact www.forestry.org.

PNW SAF Leadership Conference, Feb. 1-2, Wilsonville, OR. Contact: https:// forestry.org/2024-pnw-saf-leadershipconference/.

2024 Northwest Scientific Association Annual Meeting, May 20-23, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. Contact: www. northwestscience.org.

2024 SFI Annual Conference, June 4-6, Loews Atlanta Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia.

Contact: https://forests.org/conference/.

2024 SAF National Convention, Sept. 17-20, Loveland, CO. Contact: www. eforester.org/SAFConvention.

Contact Information NWETC: Northwest Environmental Training Center, 1445 NW Mall St., Suite 4, Issaquah, WA 98027, 425-270-3274, nwetc.org.

WFCA: Western Forestry and Conservation Association, 4033 SW Canyon Rd., Portland, OR 97221, 503226-4562, nicole@westernforestry.org, www.westernforestry.org.

Send calendar items to the editor at wattsa@forestry.org

A Bottom-Up Approach to Building an Equitable and Sustainable Forest Workforce Continued from page 11 willing to do the harshest jobs for the lowest pay, without consideration of foreign policies and neoliberal free-trade agreements that have resulted in the impoverishment of workers and their communities in Latin America. Doing this work is often a means to provide a better life for themselves and their families, and to invest in stable communities they can be a part of.

Solidarity in policymaking must consider how to include the voices and perspectives of Latinx forest workers. This workforce largely operates outside of public view and remains in the peripherals of policymaking, which often excludes their needs from being taken into account. In California, this is playing out with AB1717 and AB338 in which local organizations resist wage increases for hazardous fuels reduction workers because it may make the work too costly to implement. Raising worker wages

PHOTO COURTESY OF MANUEL MACHADO

Fulfilling the goals of reducing wildfire risk and restoring ecological resiliency will be accomplished through forestry services work of reforestation, precommercial hand thinning, manual herbicide application, and slash piling and burning.

and accomplishing needed work on the ground are not mutually exclusive to each other and can grow in tandem.

Comprehensive immigration reform and reform of the H-2B visa program are also necessary to flatten the power disparity created by current immigration structures. H-2B visa workers with no viable path to citizenship eventually return to their home countries and the forestry industry loses the skills and knowledge they accumulated during their time working in the forests.

Solidarity within and across workplaces can provide templates for creating a more sustainable forestry workforce. Employers that advocate for their workers and care for their overall well-being can increase productivity and steer the workforce toward more sustainable work practices. Inclusive spaces where Latinx forest workers can congregate with other members of the forestry sector may allow for cross-workplace collaborations and provide an outlet for their voices to be heard by forest collaboratives and partnerships.

Addressing the growing impacts of climate change and creating resilient forests requires solutions that go deeper than simply bringing temporary foreign laborers and expecting the work to be done by a workforce that is quiet and compliant, or altogether absent from community conversations and environmental policy making. Engaging with these workers out of the woods, listening to their stories, and addressing their needs can provide a path to growing a workforce that sustainably improves the health of the environment. WF Manuel Machado is the forest workforce coordinator with Oregon State University Extension and can be reached at manuel.machado@oregonstate.edu. Emily Jane Davis is director of the Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program at Oregon State University and can be reached at EmilyJane.Davis@oregonstate.edu. Funding for this work has been provided by USDA AFRI (grant # 2021-68006-34030) and the Oregon State University Extension Fire Program.

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 23

SAF Members Visit Wind River Experimental Forest

By Jen Gorski

I

n August, the Portland, Oregon and Longview, Washington, SAF Chapters convened for a fascinating field tour of the historic Forest Service tree nursery and Wind River Ranger Station and Experimental Forest in Skamania County, Washington. Portland members Bob Deal and Bob Alverts helped organize the event and recruited Dean and Jeff DeBell (father and son and members of the Southwest Washington SAF Chapter) who are helping to preserve the historic buildings and retain important long-term research results. Additional speakers included Ken Bible who outlined longterm research studies that had been done in the canopy, and Bernard Bormann explained results of Douglas-fir/red alder planting mixes and productivity studies.

The Forest Service still owns two of the buildings at the site, and Skamania County was given several other buildings to help generate income by renting them for lodging and meetings through their Public Works Department. Dean DeBell started a nonprofit group that solicits funds to support the restoration of these historic buildings. Dean and Jeff are very involved in ensuring this unique site retains its character and history while adapting its use to survive the changing times. Jeff recruited Clemson University

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEN GORSKI

interns who will ascertain whether the nursery should grow tree seedlings again, as it once did in the early 1900s. They’ll look at the current feasibility of field grown bareroot seedling and greenhouse plug production and the potential of opening a native plant center. Historically, cones were shipped and processed here, and twenty million seedlings/year were produced.

During the tour, we learned how the site was modified over the years. Two different dam structures were created on

24 WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

Trout Creek, which is close to the Forest Service Training Center. One of the first national forest timber sales cleared the area for the nursery fields and reforestation efforts. A splash dam was created to move logs, which also resulted in the creation of Hemlock Lake. A concrete dam was also constructed and in about 1935, one of the first fish ladders was created. The concrete dam was removed in about 2014 to abate water quality issues, specifically to lower stream temperature.

Today, Trout Creek flows freely at the site and fish have clear passage.

The Wind River Arboretum was established in 1912. Many tree species were planted that originated from eastern US but over the decades, none flourished at the site. The Arboretum has become overgrown, but Jeff has enlisted the Washington Trails Association to clear out the underbrush and reestablish original trails.

Research carried out at the Wind River Ranger Station and Experimental Forest has provided valuable insight into forest ecology and more effective forest practices. The beauty of some of the long-term studies is that they are actual experiments. Although funding is directed to the Forest Service’s inventory and analysis work, which is valuable for regional summaries and trends, this work is not experimental. Long-term studies also differ from industry focused stand

management work because they can be followed for more than the typical 40year rotation cycles.

Here are a few of the studies that were conducted.

• It was believed that seed distribution from a parent Douglas-fir tree was limited to 30 feet. To test this, a kite elevated a cardboard box filled with Douglas-fir seed and dumped it at an appropriate height. The seed was distributed over 900 feet, which made quite a difference in designing seed regeneration plans!

• A trial set up by Leo Isaac in 1935 looked at Douglas-fir seed longevity. It was thought that seed stayed viable for 30 years, but the study showed that the Douglas-fir seed not eaten by animals either germinated or decayed within a year after falling.

• Seed provenance and heredity studies yielded results for what type of seed to replant. Roy Silene continued research in genetics with these early results.

• Jerry Franklin and Dean DeBell wrote one of the first papers on oldgrowth ecology in 1987, based upon 36 years of long-term forest dynamic plots at the site. Valuable information was provided on ecosystem disturbance and tree mortality because of these long-term studies.

Bible shared summaries of tree canopy studies made possible with the use of a crane. Three zones were delineated to look at unique microclimates involving plants, as well as lichens and mosses, soil, and atmosphere: ground level-10 meters (m), 10-40 m, and 40-65 m. Using grant funds from the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and others, top scientists from several disciplines have contributed to a rich synergy of interaction and research results. Part of the infrastructure, such as the canopy tower, remains today, although certain structural components have been removed. Studies can continue in the future using the existing structures.

Bormann relayed results from an interplanted Douglas-fir/red alder strip grown next to a pure Douglas-fir planted area that originally was a fire break experiment. Even though fire had not been introduced into the planted area as planned, the long-term results were surprising. There was a significant jump in Douglas-fir height in the red alder/Douglas-fir strip compared to the Douglas-fir

monoculture, even as the red alder were overtopped by the Doug-fir and died out.

Because of a delay in seedling availability at the start of the experiment, the red alder was planted five years after the Douglas-fir was established, giving the Douglas-fir an early start. Red alder fixed nitrogen and added deciduous leaves to the leaf litter in the interplanted strip.

The discussion of these long-term studies prompted Paul Anderson, director of the PNW Research Station, the DeBells, and Bormann to share their thoughts on the benefits of long-term research studies. Sometimes tree vigor can dramatically change after a tree has grown for 25 years. Significant productivity within a tree species may occur in the short term but may not reveal long-term decline. By relying solely on current research designs of a few years, long-term trends will be missed.

Bormann noted that sometimes studies are often painstakingly established and initial measurements are taken without planning for the less expensive cost of follow-up measurements which would provide helpful information. Also, researcher and manager turnover within agencies can result in lost research data if appropriate storage and content knowledge is not made known. Additionally, funding for research and development has declined over the years.

Future opportunities may involve using traditionally collected individual tree measurement data and remeasuring with remote sensing technology to help reduce costs. Engagement of research scientists with social scientists and public concerns may yield promising avenues of study in areas the public cares about like deer and elk sustainability, regeneration of western redcedar in association with Native American significance, and utilization of red alder to enhance growth with conifer species.

Also, veterans have started companies to restore forests and themselves. Some of the companies have proposals that have won National Science Foundation grant dollars. The future is promising but longterm research studies fill a specific niche that deserves dedicated and continued funding. WF Jen Gorski is chair of the Portland SAF Chapter.

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Forestry and Natural Resources Workforce Development Continued from page 3

but loved the program and want to hold it again. If you don’t plant your seeds in elementary school, you’re not going to have them in high school.

And I’ve found that if you don’t talk to high school students or middle school students about career placement, they’re not going to consider working in natural resources when they get out the door; they’ll already have something else in mind.

I’ve done a lot of career expos where AOL is with other Career and Technical Education programs, and sometimes I’m the only one representing natural resources. There’s often a lot of questions about working outdoors and people are surprised to learn what loggers do for a living. I say that loggers do firefighting half the year and that it’s a really good job if you want to get out in the woods and it pays well.

My other work is very on-theground, such as scheduling trainings for our members and advertising our career center. It’s challenging to get employers to post their positions on the career center, and I have to remind them that how are potential recruits going to apply for jobs if they don’t know they’re out there.

What are the short- and long-term trends that you’re following?

Recruitment is huge. I’m having to educate our members on how to recruit differently, as well as working across multiple generations. We are overrepresented by older workers in our sector and trying to balance a workforce with up to five distinct generations is a significant challenge.

For these younger generations, how they work together and communicate, and their intrinsic motivations are different from previous generations.

The recruitment challenge is finding people who are interested, retaining them, and helping them understand their value in the ecosystem of work.

Continued on next page

WESTERN FORESTER s OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 25

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Forestry and Natural Resources Workforce Development Continued from page 25

Within this diverse intergenerational workforce, there’s a lot to learn from people who have done this work for a long time and young people bring something too. You can start breaking those walls of communication and those assumptions and just help people to approach things with a different attitude and think differently.

What’s the value of belonging to the forestry workforce that you share with the public and potential recruits?

I tell people that forestry touches science, math, politics, business, government, and communications. It’s so diverse in the kinds of jobs that almost anybody can see themselves in this profession. And everybody can agree that it is important to keep the forests healthy.

The opportunity to bring people together on this issue is unique to the forestry sector because there is such a lack of understanding, which means you can build understanding.

Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation What segment of the workforce does AgForestry

Vicky Scharlau

Advocating for active forest management on public lands.

HealthyForests.ORG

Leadership work with?

The AgForestry Leadership Program is a product of the Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation that was created back in the mid-’70s to specifically address young and mid-career professionals in natural resources. These are people in a position or role who make decisions daily that impact or have an impact on the natural resource industries in the state of Washington. These professionals include producers—foresters, farmers, or fisheries—but also individuals in agencies, nonprofits and affiliated organizations, such as insurance companies or banks.

The people and individuals who helped create the AgForestry Leadership Program realized we could have a significant impact if professionals understood not only themselves better but also the arena of public policy and what that meant to the system of agriculture, forestry, aquiculture, transportation, water, energy, and social issues.

The people who are interested in going through the AgForestry Leadership Program have to be really motivated because the program is 58 days spread throughout 18 months. It’s 13 three-day seminars held throughout the state, as well as a week-long trip to Washington, D.C. and a two-week international trip.

There is a competitive application and interview process that begins every January for the next cohort.

What is the value of this program for both employees and employers?

When a manager is looking at an employee who has great potential, they want to develop the employee into a person who might replace them. What does the employee need for that position? There are both leadership skills but there’s also management skills. The challenge is how to differentiate what the employee needs and their interests. Sometimes a manager needs to truly evaluate if an employee needs management experience or education or leadership skills. Often that requires a hard look in the mirror for an employee.

How are you adapting the leadership curriculum to meet the leadership needs of present and future leaders?

A couple years ago we were talking about this as part of the board’s strategic planning process. The board noted that

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the workforce is aging, and the program was built on needs, values, skillsets, and expectations of Baby Boomers. It didn’t take a leap of logic to understand that we needed to do a serious look and evaluation of our curriculum to ensure that what we have is a curriculum that will attract and apply to the next generations.

Recently, we received a $250,000 three-year grant through the Washington State Department of Agriculture to evaluate our curriculum so that we can ensure we’re meeting the needs of tomorrow’s leaders and of tomorrow’s employers.

The program needs to build leaders with the skillsets employers are going to need.

What are the current trends you’re observing in the workforce?

How those in their young thirties show up for work is different than someone like me whose been in the workforce for more than a couple decades. The way we learn, what we value, where we place our time, and how we spend our time is completely different. Employers should recognize that what the younger workforce needs and what they expect is dramatically different than it was 20 or 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

We also need a workforce that is adaptable, and employees need the skillsets to think critically and make decisions. For a lot of people, public speaking is becoming more of a need as is dealing with the media, which includes social media.

Additionally, leaders of tomorrow need tenacity, but they also need compassion. They really need to understand that their value system has to be strong, but it also has to be put into action on a daily basis. And they must have integrity with the ability to compromise.

What we’re hearing from the younger generations is that they want a work environment that is safe, not only in physical safety but also psychological safety.

They need an environment that is truly supportive of them but also of the team they operate within. That’s a cultural build that those in current management positions need to work on or we’re going to lose the best and brightest out of our natural resources industries. We can’t afford to do that. We need to have leaders and managers who have passion for natural resources but also the skillsets to face the uncertainties and challenges of the future. WF

Advancing Forest Expertise: Oregon SAF’s Congressional Field Tour 2023

PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AHRENS

By Mark Buckbee and Amanda Sullivan-Astor

T

he 2022 Congressional elections brought three new Congresswomen into power, and with that change came a fresh perspective on natural resources and the pressing issues surrounding them. This landscape of renewal and evolution, both ecological and political, prompted the Oregon SAF Executive Committee to organize a field tour to connect decision-makers with professional foresters from diverse corners of the forest sector.

Oregon SAF’s Congressional Field Tour, aptly named “Burned Out,” was held on August 9, 2023, with the goal of fostering a deeper understanding of forest management, carbon sequestration, and the impact of wildfires. Scheduled during the August recess, the tour took participants deep into the heart of the Lionshead Fire in the Santiam watershed—a stark reminder of the pressing need for active forest management.

The tour was meticulously designed to explore and illuminate the intricate interplay between forest ecosystems, wildfire management, carbon sequestration, and the multifaceted challenges of post-fire rehabilitation. Its primary objective was facilitating a meaningful dialogue between professional foresters and congressional staffers, enabling the latter

to witness firsthand the consequences of wildfires and the strategic responses required to mitigate their impacts. With seven staffers representing four congressional offices, including three representatives and one senator, the tour fostered a learning environment catered to varying levels of forestry and wildfire knowledge. This inclusive approach ensured every participant, irrespective of their background, would leave the tour with a more profound understanding of forest management’s complexities.

The itinerary spanned five pivotal themes, each curated to address pressing forest management concerns.

1. Wildfire Impacts: Participants witnessed the aftermath of a wildfire, observing the landscape’s transformation and the intricacies of post-fire salvage operations. The discourse highlighted the environmental, economic, and societal ramifications of wildfires and the urgency to restore forest resilience.

2. Managing Forests for Fire Resistance and Resilience: Discussions highlighted strategic forest management techniques that enhance fire resistance and bolster ecosystem resilience. The importance of landscape-scale treatments, including the Good Neighbor Authority, emerged as a potent solution to restore forests to their natural vitality.

3. Forest Management and Carbon: A focal point of the tour was the nexus

between forest management and carbon sequestration. Experts highlighted the role of active forest management in mitigating climate change by effectively capturing and storing carbon.

4. Salvage Logging and Reforestation: The tour delved into the challenges posed by salvage logging and the subsequent reforestation efforts. NEPA barriers, legal challenges, and the need for timely action were discussed, showcasing the intricate tapestry of post-fire rehabilitation.

5. The Good Neighbor Authority: This crucial program’s role in amplifying the pace and scale of restoration was explored. The integration of an Economic Development Administration (EDA) Grant into the Good Neighbor Authority’s framework demonstrated the transformative potential of federal programs in catalyzing restoration endeavors.

Speakers included private landowners whose experiences were a testament to the significance of active forest management. By sharing personal stories of postfire recovery, they illuminated the challenges small landowners face in accessing assistance programs and addressing their properties’ restoration needs. These interactions emphasized the importance of inclusive policies that consider the wide array of forest stakeholders.

The tour concluded with a visit to Freres Mass Plywood Facility where attendees witnessed innovative approaches to wood products. Here, the synthesis of forest management and sustainable practices was exemplified; the facility’s role in utilizing wood products for climate solutions underscored the pivotal role of forests in the larger climate change discussion.

Participants were unanimous in their appreciation of the insights gained. The tour reaffirmed the critical role of professional foresters as valuable resources for policy makers and encapsulated the collaborative spirit of the forest sector, encompassing public, private, industrial, academic, and environmental stakeholders. Despite the challenges presented by climate change, wildfire devastation, and evolving political landscapes, the solutions lie in a collective effort. WF Mark Buckbee is policy cochair and Amanda Sullivan-Astor is chair-elect of OSAF.

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