Branching out: Free forestry program now includes training for commercial driver's license
File photo / Professional Logging Contractors of Maine
The Northern Maine Community College program "already has a proven track record of addressing Maine's shortage of qualified lodging operators in an efficient and affordable way," said Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine.
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Aspiring loggers in Maine are being sought for a free summer training program that’s being expanded this year to include training for a Maine commercial driver’s license.
The Professional Logging Contractors of Maine and Northern Maine Community College are actively recruiting for the 20-week program, set to begin June 26. The majority of training will take place at an active timber harvest site northeast of Old Town.
Through a grant from the Harold Alfond Center of Advancement for Maine's Workforce and the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, students pay no tuition or fees, and the program provides all personal protective equipment. The expanded program is known as the Mechanized Logging Operations and Forest Trucking Program.
NMCC’s Commercial Driving Academy, launched in the late 1980s, provides commercial driving training throughout the community college system. This year’s edition aims to build on the success of the logging operations certificate program by giving participants the opportunity to earn a CDL-A permit and receive preparation for the state driving exam.
"This program already has a proven track record of addressing Maine's shortage of qualified lodging operators in an efficient and affordable way," said Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine.
“The addition of forest trucking to the program will further prepare students for today’s logging industry, giving them advanced skills to haul loads and move equipment in the Maine woods,” he said. "This will enable employers to have multi-skilled operators who can efficiently haul timber, haul equipment, and operate the equipment needed to harvest wood in today’s forest.”
Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the state’s forest products sector, which is worth an estimated $8.1 billion annually. Logging contributed an estimated $582 million to the state's economy in 2021. A report released by the University of Southern Maine in 2019 documented that up to 2,000 positions in timber harvesting and trucking will be available over the next decade.
Students enrolled in the post-secondary training will harvest timber and operate trucks using sophisticated state-of-the-art machines like those they will encounter in the logging industry. The program has a strong emphasis on safety and giving students an understanding of the variables of timber growth, tree species and markets.
The hands-on experience students gain operating equipment is an opportunity unavailable anywhere else in Maine and neighboring states and will prepare them for in-demand careers with logging contractors throughout the state.
The program was created in 2017 by three Maine community colleges, the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine and industry partners. This year’s class will be the seventh since its launch, and dozens of graduates are working in Maine’s logging industry today.
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Anyone with an interest in the program should contact Holly Grant at Northern Maine Community College at 207-768-2856. More information is available here.
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