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High school forestry program highlights B.C. skills-training overhaul

The skidder rumbles to a start around 9:30 a.m., the purr of its engine breaking the quiet of the B.C. bush… The day’s activities are similar to those of any other forestry operation in B.C., with one exception: The workers are 16 and 17 years old. On this chilly day in late October, a dozen students from Charles Bloom Secondary School’s forestry program are at the woodlot in Trinity Valley, about a 20-minute bus ride from the school in Lumby. Bloom is one of two high schools in B.C. with its own woodlot – the other is Nechako Valley Secondary School in Vanderhoof – and the only one with active logging equipment. While the school has operated the woodlot for about a dozen years, the forestry program has taken on new significance as B.C. begins a dramatic overhaul of its curriculum for kindergarten through high school in pursuit of a new skills-training agenda.

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