33 May 2024 Workforce, Human Resources, Labor aggregate performance period of six years through California Climate Investments and CAL FIRE’s Forest Health program. With a specific focus on recruitment, job placement, and removing barriers for individuals seeking training in the forest sector, HELO received additional funding as a contributing partner in the California Resilient Careers in Forestry initiative. As a concentric network of committed “dirt professionals” successfully building an expanded forest resiliency workforce, we also build confidence with our stakeholders. While there is general consensus and passionate commitment all around for the importance of training those that will lead future stewardship efforts, those of us doing the work sometimes feel the pressure of expiration dates attached to funding streams. We feel the weight of the funding responsibility for both the community of individuals who are waiting to enroll in this training and our industry partners who have contributed countless hours of their own sweat equity because securing the future of our forests is what makes them tick. Shasta College has benefitted immensely from positive engagement with our partners. In turn, and most importantly, our students have benefitted even more. We are excited to be engaging in a wider conversation with a burgeoning network of training programs across the country who are experiencing many of the same funding pinch points. This work is too important. This training is too critical. We will find our path forward. As a National Forest Products Training Coalition, we are exploring how we may make best use of our collective insights toward developing collaborative solutions. To bring it full circle, you might even say we are consolidating our efforts to diversify our strategies; stewarding the development of an effective mosaic of successful operators across our national forested landscape. t Becky Roe is the Director of Forest Health at Shasta College in Redding, California. She can be reached at [email protected].
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=