Dabney S. Lancaster
A Community College on the Cutting Edge of Education with an LT300
(The 2010 LT300 Sawmill is now called the WM3000 Sawmill)
Most colleges have high tech equipment. Just one allows students to mill wood with an LT300 industrial sawmill by AWMV, a division of Wood-Mizer. The big green machine is central to the Forestry Technology program at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge, Virginia. Travis Myers used a calculator and computer like most students while he was enrolled at DSLCC. But the skills he developed on the LT300 are the most important on his job at a lumber company.
“Running a Wood-Mizer sawmill while at Dabney helps me in logging operations and management here at M. M. Wright, Inc. I know which logs our sawmill can best utilize.” There are not many Forestry Technology programs at U.S. colleges. The one at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College is the only Forestry Tech course in Virginia, a state where 60 percent of the land is forested.
Forestry technology took root in the late 1960’s at DSLCC. Milton McGrady was one of its first graduates and he’s been the course’s main instructor since 1981. He’s taught more than 1,000 students. About 40 are enrolled for this fall semester.
“We train our students in various areas of forestry,” McGrady says. “Forest measurement, sawmilling, logging and silviculture (the care and cultivation of forest trees: American Heritage dictionary).” High school algebra and geometry are required to enter DSLCC’s forestry technology program. “Science and English are very important,” McGrady says.”But most of the course work sees the students in the forest with sleeves rolled up.”
The college also uses Wood-Mizer thin kerf blades, the saw maintenance equipment and the Wood-Mizer ReSharp option. The LT300 allows students to experience the best commercial sawmilling procedures, such as precision setup and cutting, which produce 40 percent more lumber than circle saws. Most important, students graduate from DSLCC’s Forestry Technology program ready to go to work in industry.
The LT300 replaced a 01C Frick manual sawmill. “It was pretty primitive,” McGrady says. Now we have the LT300, a new Wood-Mizer edger and a lot of other equipment. We have great technology and a great facility.” And it opens up a promising future for students interested in maintaining the vitality of one of America’s resources.