Earlier this spring the WSCA was awarded $500,000 from the Community Development Trust Fund to assist in the delivery of silviculture safety training including supervision skills, ATV operation, resource road light truck driving and power saw operation.
We are in the final stages of setting up this program and will roll out its first phase in the very near future. Crew Boss training and ATV operation training subsidies will be available to eligible applicants immediately. Resource road driving will be ready by summer and power saw training will be in place by fall.
Our pending first phase roll out announcement will frame the application process, eligibility criteria and the costs of the training. The prime focus will be to assist silviculture contracting companies in developing their own competent ‘in-house’ trainers to deliver the courses. Independent trainers will also be trained, but will not receive the same subsidies available to the ‘in-house’ program.
We do recognize that this spring’s training window is over. But moving the $500,000 program from concept to delivery model involved thickets of detail. Nevertheless, we are hoping that WSCA members in particular will use the available funds this summer and fall to train their trainers and build the necessary capacity to deliver during 2010 the minimum 1200 training seats we have promised.
John Betts,
Executive Director
Western Silvicultural Contractors’ Association
hotpulp@gmail.com
Ph: 250-229-4380