FAIRFIELD — Maine’s only college training program for logging operations and forest trucking graduated its latest class Thursday.
The state’s logging industry is working hard to find and train the next generation of foresters and loggers. Nine students were recognized at Kennebec Valley Community College on the site where they spent 20 weeks learning mechanized logging and forest trucking.
The Mechanized Logging Operations and Forest Trucking (MLOFT) program is a hands-on certificate program administered by the Northern Maine Community College. According to instructors this is the only program of its kind in the northeast.
“The need is huge, in fact we can’t train enough students the need is so great,” said Coordinator and Lead Instructor Donald Burr. “We’re able to take students and give them a strong foundation of what mechanized logging is and how to run this equipment and how to understand decision making and what its like to work in …