Panola Trains Forestry Technicians

 Since the first settler felled a pine tree, forestry has maintained its place among East Texas natural resources. Foresters and forest technicians provide the knowledge and expertise required to successfully manage the region’s forests. For the past 26 years, Panola College has offered the only certificate program in Texas to train men and women to work as forest technicians.

"When students complete our three-semester forest technology certificate program, they have earned a certificate that opens doors for them in timber companies, forest products corporations, government agencies or with independent consulting foresters," said Dr. Jay Schultz, who currently leads the Panola College program.

Graduates may also find work with federal and state parks, surveyors, utility maintenance companies and private timber buyers.

"Our forest technician program is a real efficient way to spend your education dollars to get the job training needed to work outdoors and earn a good wage," he added. "Financially, our folks don’t spend near as much to earn this certificate as they would with a four-year bachelor’s program. Starting salaries range from $8.50 to $10.50 an hour, which is fairly close to the starting salary for a four-year graduate."

Dr. Schultz earned his bachelor’s degree in forest management from Oklahoma State University, a master's degree from Duke University, and a doctorate from the University of Arizona. He has held positions with the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Kansas State University, Northern Arizona University, Stephen F. Austin State University, and has owned his own forest consulting business. He joined Panola College in 1993.

Schultz says it’s impossible to describe the "typical" forest technology student. Many enter the program right out of high school, while others are older students who have decided on a career path in forestry. Students have come to Panola College from all over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In fact, the college has a reciprocity agreement with Louisiana State University in Shreveport that allows Louisiana residents to attend Panola College without paying out-of-state tuition.

The forest technology program offers a mix of classroom and fieldwork that gives the student a taste of real life work situations. Approximately one-third of the training is in the classroom, with the rest in the field or laboratory using hands-on instruction. Classes include such topics as drafting, mapping, land measurement, wildlife ecology and forest harvesting. Wanda Risner teaches land measurements, forest mapping and silviculture courses, while Salomon Ali teaches forest measurement.

"Our graduates come out of this program armed with the skills needed to go to the woods and get to work," he explains. " When they finish the program, they can go to a tract of forestland and perform all the fieldwork necessary to prepare for a timber sale."

Forest technicians learn how to "cruise" timber, the catchword for determining forest inventory. They learn how to go to the county courthouse and obtain legal descriptions of a tract of land, then locate the tract on the ground.

"They are not surveyors, but they learn how to locate boundary lines, which is crucial to any successful forestry operation," Schultz notes.

Courses are held on the Panola College campus in Carthage, but the students might perform their fieldwork on property in the school’s service area anywhere in Harrison, Marion, Panola and Shelby counties. Schultz also takes the students on fieldtrips to tree farms and nurseries throughout the East Texas region.

In fact, during the program, several days of fieldwork are conducted under the direction of faculty, timber companies, or Texas Forest Service personnel to provide the student with actual job experience.

"We recently visited the International Paper Company seed orchard, and the Texas Forest Service tree nursery near Alto," he says. "In addition, we have several private landowners who have given us permission to use their timber tracts, plus we regularly use the college’s own tract of land across the street from our campus," Schultz says.

Consulting forester Mark Brian, senior vice president with Bird Forestry Services based in Center, says he and his partner, Mike Bird, have hired several Panola College forest technician graduates.

"I’ve been working with Panola College graduates for nearly 10 years. They have a good reputation, and they come to us with the necessary knowledge to be able to carry out the normal, everyday forest management technical field work such as forest inventory, tree marking, and silviculture operations including tree planting," Brian says.

The Texas Forest Service (TFS), part of the Texas A&M University System, is responsible for the 11.5 million acres of forestland in Texas. Among the agency’s 300 employees are numerous graduates from the Panola College forest technology program. Mark Gowanlock, a resource development technician with the TFS in Harrison County, earned his certificate from Panola in 1981.

"I went into the Panola College forest technician program as soon as I graduated from Marshall High School. I think I learned more in that program that I did in four years of high school," Gowanlock says.

An avid hunter and fisherman, Gowanlock has been able to couple his love of the outdoors with a job that has provided a good living for him and his family. In his 19 year career with the TFS, Gowanlock has worked with property owners, drafted land management plans, drawn maps, researched property boundaries, assessed timber stands, fought forest fires and planted trees.

Forestry, like any industry based on consumer demand, is cyclical. And, as with any industry dependent on natural resources, nature plays a role.

"The past year has provided us a great example of how nature affects the forest industry," Schultz notes. "The summer’s drought followed by the tremendous ice storms we had this winter have had a devastating effect on forests, particularly in the northern edge of our service area."

Gowanlock adds that the TFS in Harrison County has been handling calls from concerned landowners. "Right now we’ve been pretty busy with ice damage. Harrison County wasn’t hit as hard as Bowie County, but we are getting lots of calls asking us to come out and assess the damage," he says.

Schultz plans to take his students on a tour of a pine plantation severely damaged by ice and to a salvage operation under way to cut and remove damaged mature trees. Unlike an agricultural product that is planted and harvested each year, a stand of timber can take up to 40 years to fully mature, although thinning will be conducted periodically. As a result, forest trends are slow to change.

"A good example is that we don’t plant slash pine here anymore," explains Schultz. "Slash pine is susceptible to disease problems and to damage from ice. Loblolly pines have been genetically improved so much that they are now the seedlings of choice. Across the South, we are currently harvesting our third forest since pioneer times. Forestry will always be an important part of the economy of our region."

For additional information about the forest technology certificate program or Panola College, call (903) 693-2036 or visit the website at www.panola.cc.tx.us.