Students Gain Skills in a Productive Partnership

Proper technique demonstrated at UVLT’s Ely Mountain Conservation Area by HACTC Instructor Dan Gibson in the video below.

“Not only learning but also helping our community”

The Twin States are among the nation’s most timbered, with roughly 80 percent forested. Professional logging training is critical in what can be a hazardous occupation, and real-world experience is what trainers prefer and students crave. The Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT) is meeting both needs through partnership with secondary students in the Hartford Area Career & Technology Center’s (HACTC) Natural Resources Program.

Dan Gibson, when he’s not working the woods.

HACTC students have been mastering chainsawing through work on the land trust’s Ely Mountain Conservation Area in Thetford, VT. Their instructor, Dan Gibson, is a certified arborist and has also worked as a dry stone waller and landscaper, and he brings those focal points to the class. He says, “My biggest thing is, if I want to teach a student how to use a chainsaw I want them to be well practiced, and you need real trees for that.”

Students have grown their capabilities while helping their families.

“I wanted to do this because my grandparents are getting older, especially my grandfather,” says Morgan Darling of Barnard, VT. “We have an outside wood furnace and my uncle’s a logger, but he’s not getting any younger himself. So, for winter, it’d be better if there’s somebody out there to cut cordwood, stack it, and split it, just so I could do it if my grandfather didn’t want to.”

“I joined this program because I wanted to learn some new skills and help my parents cut down trees,” says Desmond Early of Cavendish, VT.  Overall, he’s glad to “Just learn more things I didn’t know.”

Desmond Early is a high school student from Cavendish, VT.

Early credits the activity with improving his chain brake skills, and his classmates mentioned teamwork, partnering in an efficient system, and feeling like they were contributing to a real job, among other benefits.

“We got to feel like we were working for something greater,” says Jane Svindrychova of Hanover, NH. “We felt like we were not only learning but also helping our community, which motivated us further to do what we were doing.”

HACTC is a regional resource for Upper Valley students attending Hartford, Hanover, Lebanon, Mascoma, Windsor, and Woodstock high schools, along with Sharon and Thetford academies and homeschoolers. The Natural Resources program features outdoor hands-on learning through which students learn to work safely with equipment and as part of a team. Students can acquire industry recognized logging credentials and their future career paths can include wildlife management, forestry, farming, horticulture, equipment operation, and research positions.

Chestnut trees, once dominant across New England, have become nearly extinct due to a devasting blight. HACTC students have made several field trips to the Ely Mountain site in support of a chestnut restoration effort.

Gibson works hard making connections for his students. The Ely Mountain project has involved planting chestnut trees and removing pine trees in three different sections, then using the pine brush to make a natural deer barrier.

“Trees were cut so that we could prevent a white pine monoculture and to make room for the chestnut trees,” says UVLT Land Steward Alex van Engelen.

The project is anticipated to extend over three years. “Cutting a third of that meadow this year is our goal, and then we’ll come back next year to do consecutive cuttings,” says Gibson. “Then hopefully we’ll be planting the chestnut trees.”

“This has been a great opportunity,” he continues. “This is a productive partnership, and students want to do something that’s meaningful and productive.”

The HACTC-UVLT collaboration will continue in coming months. Gibson and van Engelen are planning trail work at the Pohl Conservation Area in Hartland, VT, and hazard mitigation at the Smith Pond Shaker Forest Conservation Area in Enfield, NH, where several dead ash trees infected with emerald ash borers will be removed.

“This is mutually beneficial and we’re happy to have this relationship,” says Gibson. “Just having these connections will be incredibly useful to classes now and in the future.