BC Forestry Club Attend National Society of American Foresters Conference

Friday, November 3, 2023

On October 25th The Forestry Club at Bakersfield College, piloted by our advisor Dr. Renaldo Arroyo piled into a van and made the 4-hour journey to the National Society Of American Foresters conference in Sacramento, one of the largest gatherings of Natural Resource and Forestry Management Professionals in the country. A few of us had been to the state conference in January, and for some of us, this was our first-ever SAF Conference. However experienced, nothing could have prepared us for the scale of this event- Wall-to-wall professionals, information, job opportunities, booths displaying cutting-edge technology in the field, and professionals eager to share the knowledge they’d amassed with us bright-eyed students. One Forester I talked to had been a professional for 50 years! Beyond networking, we also had a massive, MASSIVE guidebook full of talks and panels put together by experts in their field that we could attend during our 4-day visit. It was impossible to attend each one due to overlap, so on our way to dinner in the evenings we would excitedly chatter about our favorite panels we’d attended that day, with exclamations of regret (“Man I really wanted to go to that one!”). 

The National SAF Conference was an incredible opportunity for the Forestry Club, not only for professional development and networking but also for the joyful memories we’ll have for the rest of our lives. We at the Forestry Club would like to extend HUGE thanks to Dr. Renaldo Arroyo, Advisor of the Forestry Club, and the force pushing us to incredible opportunities. We would also like to thank the Office Of Student Life, Bakersfield College Student Government Association, and Placer Resource Conservation District, and CalFire for funding the trip, without their support we would not have been able to attend. 

The Forestry Club meets every other Monday at 4pm in the Horticulture Lab.