WCC Training

As mentioned before, the week of June 13-16 was one of our WCC Training weeks.  Here are some of our experiences:

Lynda Lou

I was fortunate enough to take the gps/gis class at  WCC training week. I learned a lot and actually had fun in the process.  Bridget and Jerry were great instructors.  They were surprisingly thorough for the small amount of time we had to learn such large amounts of information.  The class moved pretty quickly, so there was little chance for boredom.      Learning to use the gps was a blast.  We even got to go geocaching to practice our skills.  Although, my favorite part of the class was learning how to put down the data we collected in an accurate readable map.  This is a field I enjoy, and I am excited to use what I’ve learned at work, and learn more in the future.

Chris
This past training I took the pumps and saw class to add on to the wild-land firefighting course I took at the first training. It was a lot of classroom work and power points but it was still pretty interesting. There was definitely some boring stuff but I'm glad I learned it. We also got to do some stuff outdoors. On the Tuesday of training we actually got to use some pumps and hoses, trying out different hose lays. On Wednesday we split into groups and took apart some chainsaws and maintained any thing on the saws that needed maintenance. The funnest day though was Thursday when we took a field trip to the East Jefferson fire station where we took our pack tests and actually got to run some saw. I was cool because we got to use some of the stuff we learned in class in real life. Overall training was a pretty good experience and I'm excited to put the skills I learned there to use in the future. 


Katie
I took the Wetlands Delineation and Rivers Assessment course.  We spent the first two days of training learning how to identify wetlands based on soil, vegetation, and hydrology, as well as some of the regulations and permitting that is involved with wetlands mitigation.  I decided it wasn't the job for me - not only does everyone hate you because you're giving them crap about their permits, but most of the permits go through, meaning that you're kind of paving the way for development.  There's no doubt that the whole process is pretty interesting though.
The second two days were spent learning about how to diagnose a stream's health using the National Rivers and Streams Assessment guidelines.  This allows those involved with the restoration aspect to more quickly solve problems in riparian habitats, rather than just treating symptoms.  The instructor was a soil scientist and had some amazing stories to tell about being a female restoration scientist in the 70s and 80s.  We also had a lovely field trip to Tarboo Creek to practice using the NRSA guidelines.


James
My experience during the WCC elective Pumps and Saws training was an informative, interesting, and overall fun week of study. I confess to going to the training expecting to learn the bare essentials required of running a pump or chainsaw, but I was pleasantly surprised that the class covered the inner workings of pump and chainsaw motors as well as the various steps of maintenance required in keeping them running. With the pumps course, I also gained a working knowledge of hydraulics calculations, which can indeed be useful to have when trying to run a mile of hose uphill. During the field training portion of the chainsaws training, John (my mentor for the day), was very patient, knowledgeable, and readily worked to educate me on correct saw handling, posture, and situational awareness. My experience was a pleasant one and I would recommend this class be offered and taken for many years to come.

Soil sampling for Wetlands Delineation

Other than training, June has mostly been maintenance.  Here is a picture of us rocking our maintenance gear (not including backpack sprayers).  Rock on WCC, rock on.