Town of Wilton, New York

WILTON — Camp Saratoga has partnered with the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES program since the 1960s and both entities have received multiple benefits from the partnership over the years.

This spring Camp Saratoga, now owned by the Town of Wilton, invited BOCES students to come to the site and clear trees to make way for a new parking lot.

Under the supervision of class instructor Dennis Flynn 26 juniors and seniors enrolled in the environmental conservation and forestry program have spent several weeks on the job.

Flynn, who has served as an instructor for the past two years, said the students — 12 in the morning and 14 in the afternoon — have been balancing the Camp Saratoga work with other jobs at the Saratoga Tree Nursery.

“We’ve had them here off and on for the past 40 years,” said Wilton Councilman Larry Gordon. “They have built some of the buildings, made picnic tables and been involved with various conservation and forestry projects. Last year they cleared an area for a proposed fire tower.”

Gordon said the students will be able to take whatever lumber they cut down to a local mill and keep it for other school projects.

“We seek no revenue from this work,” he said. “They deserve all they can get.”

The environmental conservation and forestry program is a two-year program typically open to juniors and seniors. The students attend for two and a one half hours each day and receive training on running all kinds of equipment from chainsaws to skid steers.

“It’s all hands on,” Flynn said.

“There are no idle hands in this class,” said student James Dotterweich.

James and classmate Kyle Goldy said they initially expressed interest in the program because they liked the outdoors.

“I have always been an outdoors kind of person,” Kyle said. “I had a friend who took it last year and said he liked it.”

The students do spend most of their time outside, regardless of weather and other conditions. Their “classroom” takes the form of a wood lot off Gailor and Homestead Roads owned by Saratoga County. Flynn said the students work on a variety of other projects throughout the year including community service projects, public trails, and some entrepreneurial projects as well.

Flynn said he likes to have the students doing community projects “so people see what they are doing.”

The WSWHE BOCES serves 1,700 students in 31 school districts with one out of every four high school students deciding to take a BOCES career and technological education program.

James said the skills he has learned in the course are skills he has taken home with him and put to good use.

“There are many benefits to this program,” he said. “I learn something new everyday.”

By the end of the course most of the students will have received their industrial lift truck certification, obtained their commercial driver’s license, and completed a first aid/CPR course. Upon completion of the program students will be qualified for entry-level positions in the forestry or logging industry, be able to operate heavy equipment or become a commercial truck driver. Other employment opportunities, although they require additional education, include becoming a forester, environmental scientists or mechanical engineer.

James recently placed third in a regional Skills USA competition sending him to the state competition. The competition required hime to take the skills he has learned and apply them in a presentation.

He said regardless of how he finished. the opportunity to compete was a “very cool experience” providing him with an opportunity to meet different people.

James and other program members will be in competition mode again on May 21 when they travel to Paul Smith’s college to compete against other BOCES programs from across the state. The competition is open to the public.