Becoming a part of the Company

July 15, 2015 2:34 pm Published by Devin Dake-Outhet 2 Comments

Hi!

The past few weeks have flown by yet again. I’m already dreading sitting in class instead of being outside in the forest. Not that I hate school, and Selkirk College does a great job of mixing outdoor labs with class time, but I really enjoy being outside working. Not to mention that making money is a nice change from being a broke student.

On June 24^th, Fawn and I got to be part of West Fraser’s 100 mile house monthly meeting. This was a great experience as we got to be part of the West Fraser team and hear from all the top guys (and gals) within the company. Being a temporary summer student I didn’t have anything to contribute but it was nice to get the chance to feel like a part of the company. During the meeting there were many issues discussed such as safety, audits, forest fire hazards, and the forest industry as a whole. All in all, I think that Fawn and I learned a lot from attending the meeting.

As part of the student program we are assigned a mentor. My mentor’s name is Colin and we have a one on one chat every week or two. I think that this is an excellent part of the student program as I can talk to Colin about anything. Whether it is work related or something happening my personal life, he is there to help me out. Sometimes I talk to Colin about work and forestry related issues, but other times I simply ask him if he knows a good mechanic or a good fishing spot. Being new to a town or a job can be intimidating for some people and having the mentor program is a great way to get summer students comfortable in their new surroundings.

Fawn and I were sent to a few areas near Cache Creek to make some boundary changes before some blocks were to be logged. We were sent there because the crew doing searches for Native artifacts found some items in these blocks. So we had to go in there, and change the boundary to protect these areas. This was a nice change-up from our daily routine of working near 100 mile as we got to see some new forests and terrain. It is steeper and more mountainous in these areas which is a quite different from the flats and swamps that we are used to around 100 mile house.

I’ll check back in a couple weeks!