Summer 2024 23 more stable and lucrative professions, leading to a generational gap in the workforce. To address the diminishing workforce in forestry there needs to be a concerted effort to promote forestry as a viable and rewarding career option. This involves enhancing educational programs, offering training and apprenticeships, and providing incentives for young people to enter the field. The Virginia Forestry Educational Foundation (VFEF) has a longstanding tradition of supporting scholarships for higher education at Virginia Tech and Mountain Gateway Community College. These college programs are training and preparing the next generation of forest managers, foresters, and technicians. In the last few years, VFEF also has significantly increased support for the six 4-H Centers across the Commonwealth. Programs at these centers help to expose more youth to forestry and its importance to Virginia. One area where we need to improve is reaching potential workers who are entering the workforce and not seeking higher education. This includes high school graduates, military veterans, and others exploring career change options. One new program that addresses this is the Virginia Forest Trails Initiative that debuted at EXPO Richmond back in April. The purpose of this initiative was to reach out to high school students with a seminar highlighting the importance of the forest industry to Virginia. More importantly, it introduced attendees to potential career opportunities within all sectors of the forest industry—logging, trucking, foresters, and more. VFEF is proud to have sponsored this inaugural effort and is excited about the potential of future events. VFEF is looking for opportunities to partner with groups to support development of outreach opportunities. Do you have an idea for workforce development and outreach? Are you aware of any programs that need support? If so, please reach out to a member of our Board of Directors or contact us online at vfef.net. The Virginia Forestry Education Foundation thanks you for your continued financial support. We thank you for your help in identifying opportunities to continue to educate the public about forest management. We now challenge you to help us identify opportunities to educate the public about the career opportunities that our industry provides. With your help, we can remove the “Diminishing Workforce in Forestry” from the threatened list.
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