Nine students graduate Mechanized Logging Operations and Forest Trucking Program [Video]

FAIRFIELD, Maine (WABI) – Nine students graduated the Mechanized Logging Operations and Forest Trucking (MLOFT) Program.

While it’s administered by Northern Maine Community College, the tuition free program is hosted at an active timber harvest site at Kennebec Valley Community College.

“The cost to train a new operator was in excess of $100,000 in the first year, and that’s an unsustainable number. So, they really look to the professional community college system to help train new operators,” said Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast Executive Director, Dana Doran.

The program is 20 weeks long, and in those weeks, they learned quite a lot.

“What they take away is an understanding about how mechanized logging is actually done and with seven different pieces of equipment. We have a whole tree side of the program, and then we have a cut to length side and so they learn all the facets of …