BC company provides Wildland Firefighter Training for men facing barriers to career success

“Some of us were involved in the criminal justice system at one time or another in our lives,” Chris Logan, one of the participants explains. “It kind of gives us a chance for us to enter the workforce and help our community, too.”

Sean Humphries is making the most of this opportunity and enjoys the type of work he’s been doing as part of the program.

“I love being outdoors and I have family that worked in forestry and said that it was awesome,” Humphries says. “I just figured it would be a good route to take.”

Thursday’s training involves cutting down cottonwood saplings on a previously logged cut block. According to Johnson, these trees aren’t of significant value to forestry producers.

“An area like this is great,” Johnson says. “The cottonwood trees are not a desirable tree in a forestry setting. We want the pine trees or any other coniferous trees.”

So the students are let loose, taking down any deciduous saplings that get in their way. For Sean, working with a power saw has been fun, but he;’s also thinking about his future.

“[My favourite part is ] the hands-on brush saw, so far. It’s been awesome, Brian’s a good teacher,” Humphries says. “The main reason a lot of us are here is to help with the fires and get a career that way.”

The group is working not far from where the Tremont Creek wildfire continues to burn, a fact that isn’t lost on many of these students. Especially when they’re surrounded by smoke.

“When we think about when we finish when we graduate and where we want to go,and it’s in the news, it’s all around us. When we wake up, we smell it,” Logan says. “We want to protect our communities, I think a direction a lot of people are heading. It’s definitely something very real.”

A fresh start for these men, with an opportunity to help others.

by Adam Donnelly

BC company provides Wildland Firefighter Training for men facing barriers to career success

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