SWEET HOME — The forestry club at Sweet Home High School has just barely returned from its 23-year hiatus, and Kori-Lin Bishop has no intention of seeing it sink back into obscurity.

Bishop, a sophomore transfer student from Philomath High School, resurrected the Sweet Home club last year in hopes of keeping her position as a state officer. She and her teammates are spending this year practicing, attending competitions and otherwise seeking to carve out a niche for themselves among the high school’s activities.

“It’s kind of another opportunity for kids who don’t do track or don’t do football,” said Bishop, now a junior and still a state officer with Associated Oregon Forestry Clubs.

At competitions, club members climb spar poles, set chokers and hew off chunks of logs with chainsaws and crosscut saws. Ten competitors will travel to Madras this weekend, and the state competition is the first weekend in May.

Members are hoping a renewed interest in the Albany Timber Carnival, which also features those competitions, will bring them more members. The carnival is to be resurrected this summer after a seven-year hiatus, and the Sweet Home club hopes to compete.

But members know forestry club is a lot more than just chips and chainsaws.

Club members study map and compass reading. They compete in public speaking categories as well as tool and tree identification. Earlier this month, 10 club members participated in a fire school at Camp Cascade that taught them fire science, safety procedures, and the techniques and equipment used to fight wildfires.

Ultimately, adviser Dustin Nichol said, he’d like to see Sweet Home offer its own forestry class. He envisions students learning about watersheds, riparian zones, maybe even geology and erosion control.

“I think that there are some viable opportunities in the timber industry,” Nichol said. “By offering a class at the high school, it just opens another avenue that some kids may be able to pursue.”

In the meantime, he’s asked the Sweet Home School Board to consider creating a practice field for the club on the campus of Sweet Home High School. Cascade Timber has allowed the group to practice on the city’s rodeo grounds, but a school site, with classrooms, would be more convenient, Nichol said.

Members already have the equipment and timber they need, thanks to $5,000 grants from Weyerhaeuser and the organization “Friends of Paul Bunyan.” Jimmy Tack and Clint McCollum are among several Sweet Home residents to chip in, donating a storage container, two spools of line and a hydraulic line cutter.

Having the club on campus would raise its profile, Nichol said. “It’s another opportunity for kids.”