COLORADO—Great Onyx Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center and the Allegheny and Shawnee national forests continue to strengthen an ongoing, productive partnership that deploys suppression and prescribed fire resources throughout the Southern and Eastern regions. Robust, open and sustained communication amongst staff and between staff  and students has been an essential key to this partnership and fostering the mutually beneficial interdependence valued by the agency.

Great Onyx Firefighter Type 2 and Sawyer Class Three student Amand White saw these values in action when he participated in a three-day S-212 chainsaw course while supporting the Shawnee’s spring Rx season. “Engine 621 Assistant Fire Engine Operator Paul Clement has good communication and people skills,” said White. “He knew how to talk to me to help me learn and understand proper techniques.”

During the 14-day deployment, White joined students Letrae Mcmullen, Brett Buckett and Avery Orange to work on four prescribed fires totaling 1,232 acres, fight seven wildfires, and complete the chainsaw course. They completed their field training on a campground with numerous hazard trees. By completing chainsaw training in that location, they helped the local district complete critical project work. Job Corps Rx deployments like this one provide national forests and grasslands tremendous economic value. In return, the students have the opportunity to learn and hone new skills and earn Public Land Corps credit hours.

Clement, the lead instructor, worked hard to create a safe learning environment for the Great Onyx students. E-621 field instructor Drew Myer enjoyed watching the students’ transformation. “It was great to see the students come into the class not knowing anything and be able adjust and learn the safe and correct methods of working with chainsaws.”

Clement and Myer are typical of Forest Service professionals who have embraced the Job Corps program and provide valuable leadership and mentoring to its students, some of whom may very well become our next generation of federal wildland fire managers.

Great Onyx student Brett Buckett, having a certain level of experience with chainsaws under his belt, was impressed with the felling techniques he learned, and the language fallers use to communicate with each other to keep everyone safe. “I learned how to use a plum bob, which really is a simple tool—just a piece of string with something attached to it to add weight,” he shared. “You have to be a bit of a distance away and you use it to measure a tree from top to bottom, determine where it carries the most weight and where it’s leaning to know the safest direction to cut.”

Having entered Job Corps intending to become a welder, Buckett has caught the fire bug and now views welding as something to fall back upon. He likes nature and being out in the woods. He plans to pursue a job as a seasonal firefighter and is happy to travel to wherever a job takes him.

White also is rethinking his career plans. He believes his chainsaw qualifications will make him competitive and stand out. White was particularly grateful to learn the fine points of sawyering that will keep him safe. “I started out with a habit to step in front of the tree when I was rotating around it,” he said. “It’s [now] burned into me to never step in front of a tree.”

Job Corps overhead staff constantly search for these training opportunities and have been taking students out for six years. Their consensus is that this was one of the best modules they’ve taken out on an assignment. Engine Captain Robert Goulding said, “The students came ready to work every day and maintained an excellent attitude throughout the entire assignment and they would be glad to take them out again anytime.”