By Rob Woolsey / KCAW Raven Radio
This story was published by KCAW Raven Radio. Read/listen to the full story here. The story features Sitka High School students learning carpentry skills, while also getting hands on young growth lumber barged in from Tenakee Logging Company, to build sheds that are being put into use at small housing units in Sitka.
The Career and Technical Education Center at Sitka High allows students to build large structures indoors. Not necessarily real-world conditions, but ideal for educators and students with limited time for learning. (KCAW/ Rob Woolsey)
"I’ve worked with yellow cedar, locally-milled. I’ve worked with alder, the spruce that Gordon does really is a good product. It’s really very stable. It’s really very predictable. It’s something that I can have success with students. So we’re interested in seeing Gordon and his son continue to produce product, and other mills in the region try to replicate what we got there."
— Mike Vieira, Teacher, Sitka High School
“[This project is] helping us figure out what we can use our local timber resource for, what the opportunities are, and what the constraints are for sourcing local lumber. And we’re training youth to be on career pathways to do construction work, and we need a lot of workers in Sitka to do construction work, and there’s a dearth of those. So putting them through this program and that they’re either going into the workforce or able to work on their own homes is a real good thing for us.”
— Andrew Thoms, Executive Director, Sitka Conservation Society