Student Logging Training Program

Student Logging Training Program

The Student Logging Training Program (SLTP) offers students pursuing degrees in Forestry, Forest Engineering or Forest Engineering/Civil Engineering a hands-on, paid opportunity to develop practical logging skills and add valuable employer-desired skills to resume. The SLTP also fulfills required work internship requirements. 

Based primarily on the OSU McDonald-Dunn Research Forest, located just 15 minutes north of OSU's Corvallis campus, the program provides real-world experience in modern logging operations. Students work with industry-standard equipment including a Koller 501 Yarder, Link-Belt loader and John Deere skidder, and gain proficiency in using power saws for felling and bucking timber. Students participate in all phases of forest engineering and harvesting operations, including planning, field reconnaissance, final layout, climbing and rigging, choker setting, yarding, skidding, log quality control and marketing.

Student Logging Training Program (SLTP)

The SLTP prepares students to integrate silviculture with harvesting systems while supporting the educational and operational missions of the Research Forests. New crew members are chosen in early fall. Please direct questions to Steve Pilkerton steve.pilkerton@oregonstate.edu.

Program goals

  • Integrate silviculture with harvesting systems
  • Training and teaching
  • Conduct workshops and class demonstrations
  • Promote forest engineering and harvesting practices to the public
  • Demonstrate safe work practices

Gain experience in:

  • Managing young stands with skyline cable thinning
  • Salvaging small pockets of blowdown
  • Clearing roads and removing hazards