On Friday, my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee and I got to visit this program outside of Stratton, talk with the students, and observe their remarkable skills with mechanized logging operations.
The relatively modest state investment in this partnership between the Maine Community College System and the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine appears to be producing good results in skilled workforce development.
In Maine, forest products remain an essential renewable resource and a valuable component of much of Maine’s rural economy. Good to see young skilled workers learning and moving directly into good jobs.
Forest products also have to be part of the long-term state plan for reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels and building a renewable energy economy. I think there is work for us all to do on that in the next legislative session. I’m thinking that my colleague Trey Stewart probably agrees.
Thanks, Dana Doran, for arranging this visit.
- Free community college program teaches next generation of Maine loggers, Press Herald, 15 Sep 2019