A major barrier to increasing the pace and scale of restoration treatmentsand reducing the threat of wildfire is a lack of forest product industry workforce and capacity. The forest product industry has been in decline for several decades, and the current capacity for harvesting, transporting, and processing wood cannot meet growing needs to achieve various forest management objectives. To do so, the industry will require a large forestry contractor workforce.
Skilled professionals are needed to safely and efficiently operate forest equipment and logging trucks, and currently there are no appropriate training programs designed for the southwestern forest industry. To better understand existing contractors and their employee training needs, researchers at ERI and Northern Arizona University surveyed forestry contractors in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado to gather demographic and background information, as well as establish how a forest operations training program might address employee training needs.
The study was published in the Journal of Forestry, and the ERI produced a white paper and fact sheet summarizing the journal article. The findings suggest that a forest operations training program could advance the forest products industry and facilitate restoration treatments in the Southwest.
Journal Article:
Forest Contracting Businesses in the US Southwest: Current Profile and Workforce Training Needs
White Paper:
Workforce training needs of forestry contractors in the US Southwest: Results of an industry survey
