Terra Tech Partners for Forestry CTEs

Career and Technical Education, or CTEs, is something that more and more schools and industry partners are paying attention to. Terra Tech is a proud supporter of Forestry CTEs and Horticulture CTEs in Oregon. 

What many teachers and employers know is that going right to college, or even going to college at all,  isn’t right for every high school student. Students often leave college with 6-figure debt and then are unable to find a job where they can even hope to pay that off. Through work like forestry, a high school graduate could get the skills and go to work in the woods right now and expect to earn good pay.

At Terra Tech, we work closely with an organization called Oregon Forest Resources Institute, or OFRI. They do a lot of work to add forestry to high school curriculums. They work with grant money to help get teachers around the state the resources they need to teach forestry in order to prepare high schoolers for rewarding post-school jobs. We support their efforts by giving OFRI deep discounts on supplies to make sure we get as much product in their hands as possible so the kids can get trained and become our future workforce. 

There’s also an organization called Forestry Today and Forever (FTF) that we are proud supporters of. This group organizes forest field days for middle school students and teachers to promote awareness of forests and forest management. We are monetary supporters to keep this program going, so that young students learn about how the industry works as stewards of forests. We also provide deep discounts to make sure the program has the gear it needs so the teachers can teach and the students can learn. 

We’re big supporters and advocates of FTF’s high school career education program, which is a program they take to high school classrooms to show students the variety of job opportunities and careers that it is possible for them to get in the forest sector.  

Since Terra Tech started in 1976, we’ve helped plant more than 10 billion trees. We take our commitment to the environment, and preserving and growing that environment for the future, very seriously. As a company, we’re always looking for ways to increase education about responsible resource management. Helping educate a new generation of future forestry and horticulture leaders is part of that commitment.