Reagan Brown sliced a board from a cut log using a brand new bright orange sawmill as a crowd of students, teachers and lumber industry workers looked on.
He was part of a day-long event Orofino Junior Senior High School put on May 22 to show off its new trade programs, including the sawmill.
Aiden Olive, a senior, was helping Reagan.
“ This is completely new, we got this about a month ago, we put it together ourselves,” he said.
The school is in a river valley surrounded by hills covered in evergreen trees – the kind of forest that has been logged for more than a hundred years. It’s a $2.5 billion industry in Idaho, but it’s looking for workers.
“ I wasn’t really certain about going into forestry at first, but after getting this mill and running it and seeing how it works, I really actually think that could be some possibility of going into forestry,” Olive said.
The Idaho Department of Education wants school districts to create new programs to prepare students, starting in seventh grade, to work in local industries.
“We’re trying to get this going in every classroom around the state,” said Debbie Critchfield, the Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction. She explained how $65 million was set aside for the Idaho Career Ready Students grant program.
Orofino Junior Senior High School was awarded $528,100 to build out its natural resource program and purchase new shop equipment like the Wood-Mizer sawmill.
It was a competitive grant bid process, said Allison Duman, the K-12 Initiatives director for the Idaho Department of Education.
The state received 150 proposals totaling more than $130 million, but has only awarded 72.
“We knew the need for this program was there, but the number and volume of the proposals submitted far exceeded our expectations,” Duman said.
North Idaho schools in Kamiah, Lapwai, St. Maries, Potlatch and Nezperce were also awarded grants to build out natural resources curriculum and upgrade their shop programs.
“Roughly $11 million has gone to natural resources and forestry programs in this part of the state, that’s how much I believe in it,” Critchfield said. “We’re now in the place where this is the talent pipeline.”
The industry provides more than 30,000 jobs like timber harvesting, wood and paper manufacturing and furniture building.
Jeremy Shawver from the Idaho Department of Lands was on site because IDL supports the new program by doing things like donating logs.
“It definitely seems like the average workforce in Idaho is around 50 years old for the loggers, logging side of things,” Shawver said. “Even with the existing industry, we’ve been trying to get more people into the workforce.”
Along with how to turn logs into boards in the shop, students took classes in fisheries, wildlife and forestry, and took multiple field trips to learn about career options in their community.
“As a class, we partnered with the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex to go and study Pacific lamprey,” said student Logan Henson.
The lamprey is a long slender fish that serves as an important food source for different fish, birds and mammals. On one of the field trips, students conducted a stream health assessment for Orofino Creek.
“My favorite part about this one to come full circle was actually that we found a Pacific lamprey in the creek,” she said, which means the creek is healthy.
Along with courses that teach students what professions are available in their community, the shiny new shop equipment is winning students over.
“Seeing that crossover from our forestry class to the shop class has been so awesome, seeing from trees to lumber, I mean, it’s really cool,” said student Ava Goetz
She’s working on a dining room table with wood she cut from the shop. And she’s not afraid to forge a new path.
“I’m the only girl in our senior shop class,” said Goetz, who will graduate next month.
There are more women leading state forest agencies than ever before. But fewer than 20% of foresters in the U.S. are women, according to the National Association of State Foresters.
“The forestry industry, I mean, they see more women every day, so I would definitely encourage it,” said Goetz. “I’ve had a great experience and I can’t wait to get into it, so do it if you’re thinking about it.”
Now, the state will be keeping track of students like Ava and Aiden to see what careers they choose.
This story was written by Lauren Paterson for Northwest Public Broadcasting.