Fleming College

Highly hands-on, our intensive ‘boots on the ground’ Forestry Techniques program will prepare you for direct entry into the workforce or provide you with a pathway to further education. Two semesters and delivered in-person, the program focuses on the applied and technical skills necessary to conduct field work and support forest management operations in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence and Boreal Forest regions.

Fleming College is renowned for producing highly-skilled and qualified graduates in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences. Major employers seek to hire our grads because of our reputation in the forestry industry.

With our existing cluster of forestry related programs, we have a number of unique strengths related to supporting students studying in these programs at Fleming. This includes:

• Dedicated lab spaces for chemistry, soil sciences, forest pathology, entomology, dendrology, and fire science
• Biodiversity Commons, a space that provides students access to equipment (clinometers, prisms, GPS units, hip chains, etc.), study samples and specimens, computers and microscopes
• An arboretum with both native and non-native tree species

This program provides entry-level, job-specific technical skills that are required in today’s forestry sector. Your courses will focus on hands-on, field-based skills such as:

• Plant and wildlife identification
• Forest navigation
• Data collection and tree inventory
• Using tools and small power equipment

As a graduate of this program, you will have the ability to:

• Use the appropriate tools to measure and quantify ecosystem components for forest inventories.
• Identify living and non-living ecosystem components to implement the appropriate silvicultural standards.
• Collect, transcribe, and tabulate forestry-related data following prescribed methods and standards.
• Operate and maintain tools and small equipment used in the forestry sector according to industry standards and safety practices.
• Navigate natural environments using industry standard tools including maps, compass, and GPS and standard safety practices to perform data collection.
• Identify skills, tasks, levels of responsibility and limits of practice to plan for and pursue jobs in the forestry sector.

There are career opportunities for graduates of this program anywhere there is a forest – across Canada, around the world, or right in your own community.

Along with careers in the forestry industry itself (woodlands, sawmills, pulp mills), you could find yourself working for hydroelectric companies, conservation authorities, municipalities, government agencies, forest nurseries, federal/provincial forestry-related ministries, or private contractors.

For information on the variety of careers in forestry and the growing need for skilled forestry employees, visit: http://thegreenestworkforce.ca