The Astoria Timber Festival hopes to entice young people to pursue careers in logging.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
The Astoria Timber Festival hopes to entice young people to pursue careers in logging.
OregonLive.com’s Jamie Hale previewed the festival that hopes to keep the logging industry alive through competitions and a job fair.
The fair will bring “a special focus on job and career opportunities in the logging and forestry industry,” bringing out logging companies that are looking for young people “to join this good paying sustainable industry.”
Between the high school logging competitions, the job fair and the Astoria Timber Festival itself, it looks like local loggers are doing just about all they can do to bring in young recruits.
In the February issue of Oregon Business, president and principal economist for Impresa Joe Cortright argues that rural Oregon must embrace innovation and move away from a reliance on timber.
The idea that Oregon’s economy is resource based is deeply imprinted on our collective psyche. It’s even woven into the carpets in the state capitol: fir trees on the House floor, salmon and wheat in the Senate. But today the truth is that less and less of the economy hinges on access to these raw materials. More and more, it is our ability to create economically valuable new ideas that drives our economy forward — in the city and the country.
Metro Portland, for example, accounts for 55% of the state’s employment, more than 60% of its gross product and 59% of its manufacturing jobs — all proportions that have increased over the past decade. Its success has come from growing clusters of knowledge driven industries in electronics, software, athletic and outdoor goods, transportation equipment, and professional and business services.
Read Cortright’s column here.
Building a stronger core of young skilled laborers is being addressed in Albany as well.
A partnership of businesses, schools and government has been formed in the Linn County town with the city government providing $2.9 million for technical training equipment at Linn-Benton Community College, according to a news release.
From that release:
Jim Merryman, Chief Operating Officer and President of Oregon Freeze Dry, led a coalition of Albany-area businesses and industries in asking for money that the City had set aside for economic development projects. The funds will be used to purchase equipment which will allow for the creation and enhancement of one-year certificates and two-year degree programs at LBCC in nondestructive testing, titanium welding, machine tooling, and mechatronics.
Merryman and other business leaders told the City Council that they are currently unable to fill many high-paying local jobs because workers don’t have the skills to do them.
“This partnership addresses the specific needs of Albany businesses, diversifies and strengthens Albany’s economy, and will allow local businesses to fill more than 1,000 positions over the next five years,” Merryman said.
