HOULTON, Maine — Students from the Career and Technical Education Region Two forestry program competed against peers from around the state Thursday in the 41st annual High School Woodsmen Competition.
Forestry students from Region 9 (Mexico), Oxford Hills, and Foster Tech (Farmington) also participated in the event that continues Friday, May 12, at the Region Two School of Applied Technology.
Region Two hosts the event every four years.
“This event is a chance to showcase what they have learned throughout the winter,” Robert Greenier, Region Two forestry instructor, said of the students. “A lot of these events relate to what they have learned, but some of it is the ‘old-school’ logging events, like the ax throw and the log roll. It ties everything all together.”
Thursday’s events included ax throwing, splitting a dot on a piece of wood with an ax, log rolling, throwing a piece of log for distance and accuracy, log scaling (measuring); operating a skidder and a loader, sawing and chainsaw troubleshooting.
Events scheduled for Friday include: tree identification and felling trees, among others.
Region Two’s forestry program is the only remaining program of its kind in Aroostook County. Ashland had a program many years ago, but is no longer operating. In fact, there are only four programs for the entire state, Greenier said.
The event, while a competition, also provides an opportunity for students with common interests to interact with each other outside of the classroom. The Region Two forestry program includes students from Houlton, Hodgdon, Katahdin, Southern Aroostook and the Carleton Project.
Results from the competition will be posted online when they become available.
