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Following on the Silviculture Sector Needs Analysis, input from the Strategic Advisory Board and the recommendations of the BC Forest Safety Task Force six silviculture occupations have been identified as requiring training leading to a form of recognized competency certification. Development of the training and educational curricula to achieve these competencies include a variety of processes most of them relying on the input of high performing silviculture sector practitioners (DACUM process) as well as drawing from other sectors’ best practices when applicable.
Because of the seasonal and itinerant nature of the silvicultre sector the methods of delivering training will rely on a number of models. The design of those various training delivery methods is underway in collaboration with the Council. Some training will be developed to be delivered by contractors themselves to their employees by their own qualified supervisor/instructors. ATV and resource road driving may be delivered in this way. Other training will require a more formal approach using a class-room settings relying on outside instruction. Supervisor training will likely lend itself to this model. Similarly, wildfire fighting and prescribed burn training may actually be conducted in a “boot camp” setting in order to focus the training and concentrate instructor expertise.
All the training certification is proposed to be based on a “task book” model. This personal identification and record book will be kept and maintained by the successful trainees. A central data bank will also maintain training records of students. All the above training will involve testing. The task book and data bank will verify the student/workers’ training and record the currency and competency of their performance of the occupations for which they are certified. The BC Safe Silviculture Project will steward the training curricula as well as ensure instructors are delivering training and certification consistently and appropriately.
Training young workers or upgrading experienced drivers to drive competently on resource roads in B.C. poses numerous challenges. Most students will come to the training with many of their driving habits already in place. Many will believe they are sufficiently competent already. Younger drivers raised on years of SUV and light pick up commercials may believe the trucks and vans they are driving are inherently safe vehicles. Many contractors may believe that current provincial enhanced licensing levels may be adequate for resource road driving. But those tests do not address the circumstances common to forestry road driving. Furthermore the pressure on resource roads is creating what some observes call a “perfect storm” of hazardous circumstances. And as humans tend to do, we often overestimate our own skills and underestimate the hazards we face, particularly when it comes to driving.
Reversing human nature and personal habits may require an original approach when it comes to the particulars of driving on the vast and poorly regulated network of resource roads in the province. The course teaching will be a combination of theoretical and practical. Students will learn about their duties as drivers and the higher standard of care expected of professional drivers. They will learn the rules of the road as the regulations state and safe practice dictates. As well they will be reminded of Newtons Laws of Motion and how they affect vehicle handling and dynamics. They will study the very important cognitive and psychological aspects of driving including the hazards of fatigue and distraction. At the same time they will need to demonstrate familiarity with the vehicles they operate and specific maneuvering skills required to competently drive light trucks and vans.
Content writing is currently underway with the fall as a milestone for a training pilot. The original draft resource road driving job task analysis produced last year is available here.
This course is complete and is expected to be made available by fall 2006 once a training delivery model is in place including developing lead instructors, fee schedules and a student registry.
This training specific to the silviculture sector is in the proposal stage. There are already excellent basic chainsaw operation courses in place but they do not specifically address the skills needed for effective and safe silviculture work. Chainsaw work in the silviculture sector suffers from one of the highest injury claim rates in the forestry sector. This training for the silviculture sector will include brush saw as well as chainsaw work aimed at crews who space, brush and do forestry slash work. The silviculture sector is proposing to begin curriculum development work this fall using experienced West Coast spacers and Interior slashers and brushers. This training will not involve falling training which includes learning to cut and control trees larger than six inches at chest height.
British Columbia’s forests are suffering their worst forest health crisis in our history. The outcomes of that destructive assault is increasingly severe forest fires and the pressing need to restore ecosystems damaged by mountain pine beetle and other pests and blights. An increasing part of these demands will fall on the silviculture sector to provide workers able to suppress fires and manage forest fuel treatments and restoration projects safely and effectively. In anticipation of these expectations the BC Safe Silviculture Project is developing curricula and certification in the areas of wildfire fighting and prescribed burning aimed at the entrepreneurial community. For information on this project please click here.
With a pronounced demographic shift towards a younger, less experience silviculture workforce proper supervision is a critical element to creating a safer healthier industry. Supervisors face a suite of explicit and implicit demands. They need to manage the logistical imperatives of running crews while at the same time training, overseeing and setting examples for their often impressionable crews. They need an array of skills and traits to be effective leaders in situations where events often stray from the predictable.
The Council is presently designing training to provide instruction in the core requirements of competent supervision. The BC Safe Silviculture Project is in a simultaneous process of developing specific silviculture supervision training based on the Council’s core teachings. The draft DACUM notes from the silviculture sector curriculum development process are available for information here
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