Forestry Program Information

Facilities & Resources

Cutting-Edge

We strive to stay current with industry standards.

Classroom lectures take on practical significance in Forestry and Natural Resources. Our program offers hands-on training and skills that students need to succeed in this industry. We teach the latest in Geographic Information Systems and data recording equipment. Our college farm includes a Valley Oak grove and the Kings River which offer excellent opportunities for practicing tool and equipment usage, hydrology labs, and plant or animal identification.

Our 800-acre school forest is located at 5,500 feet in elevation at YMCA Camp Sequoia Lake. This mixed-conifer forest provides the ideal site for field trips ranging from wildlife photography to trail maintenance, and from running chainsaws to utilizing hand tools. The school forest is located only forty miles from campus, making it accessible and relevant to the education that we offer.

At Reedley College students learn to use hand tools, chainsaws, a self-loading log trailer, and a Mobile Dimension Saw Mill. 

Work Experience

Connected

We have strong ties to industry employers, and they continue to hire our students.

In the Reedley College Forestry and Natural Resources department, we believe that hands-on work experience is essential to your development into a capable, proficient resource manager. Our students are employed through internships that are required prior to earning degrees or certificates, but internships are also paid employment. Students have held positions as:

  • Natural Resources Interpreter
  • Hot Shot crew member
  • Student Park Ranger
  • Cave Naturalist
  • Forestry Technician
  • Recreation Technician
  • Timber Marker

Internships are such a vital aspect of the program that we plan classes around them. Our program is structured around the natural resources work season, which lasts from mid-May through mid-October. Several of our Fall classes are shortened to nine weeks so students, returning from their internships, can still get in a full semester.