January 2013 Newsletter

BCCFA Conference and AGM June 6-8, 2013
Mark the dates and be sure to join us and our hosts, the Wetzin'kwa Community Forest in Smithers.

BCCFA Meets with Government in Victoria
Jennifer Gunter, BCCFA Executive Director, Kevin Davie, BCCFA President and Jack Mc Leman, BCCFA Director met in January with Minister Steve Thomson and senior government officials in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, including Deputy Minister Doug Konkin and Director of the Forest Tenures Branch, Doug Stewart. They also met with Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training to discuss opportunities for community forests. The meetings were held while the BCCFA was in Victoria for the Truck Loggers convention and trade show. Read the Briefing Note and the Update on New Partners and Projects papers that were prepared for the meetings.

WoodSourceBC January Update
We encourage you to take a moment and visit the website which is filled with a ton of new resources and a new member search function. Are you registered with WoodSourceBC yet? Have you updated your profile lately? The more the website is used, the more useful it will be. Coming January 31st -  District Information Map, the addition of Google mapping of location of members and more.  From December 15 - January 15 there were 605 visits to the website and 3110 page views.  more information

Aboriginal Business Match
The BCCFA will be a participant in the Aboriginal Business Match in Penticton February 18-21. The event is attended by over half of BC First Nations and Tribal Councils. We think it will be a great opportunity to meet with First Nation community forests. If your organization will be attending and would like to meet with the BCCFA staff, please contact us. 

Community Forest Agreement Status Table
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has updated the community forest status table on their website to reflect the recent expansion of the program. The update includes the new 150,000m3 invitation for a community forest  to the Burns Lake communities.  more information  

Update on the UBC Community Forest Internship Pilot Program
Thank you to the five community forests that expressed interest to be involved in the pilot program for undergraduate internships on community forests in the summer of 2013. The interns will be working with the Nakusp Community Forest and the Esketemc First Nation. We recognize that it was a very short turn around time for application submissions, making it difficult to properly discuss the program with your boards. We anticipate that with solid success of the program this year, additional internship opportunities will be available for next year.

Logan Lake Community Forest in the News
As a result of Don Brown, Logan Lake Community Forest Manager, hosting a tour of Nova Scotian senior government officials in November and their Minister’s recent announcement of a new Community Forest Program in Nova Scotia, Don was invited to be interviewed by CBC Radio on their Station in Sydney. more information

Policy Network formed at Community Forestry Conference
First Nations, government and industry representatives, community forest practitioners, NGOs and researchers from across Canada met in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario January 16-18 to build on the growth of Canadian co mmunity forestry and to develop a national network for analysis and policy engagement. Susan Mulkey and Erik Leslie presented at the conference on the behalf of the BCCFA.  more information

Lighter Reading: A Lorax Poem by Jesse Ribot
Dr. Jesse Ribot, a leading expert on democratic decentralization of natural resource management from the University of Illinois, drew on his experience in Africa and around the world in a keynote address to delegates at the Ontario conference mentioned above.  He ended his presentation with a humorous yet potent "bedtime story" more information
  
Bridges II December 2012 Report
Chris Ortner reports on the progress of the Bridges II contract, including connecting with Community Forest representatives, Woodlot owners, and Small and Medium enterprises in the McBride to Barriere and West Kootenay area. more information

Update from the Bella Coola Community Forest more information

More News

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Fostering Resilient Forests and Ecosystems Workshops
The Chief Forester has recently announced a series workshops that will help participants identify harvesting and silviculture practices that can be changed today to help address climate change, and where efforts should be focused as a priority. more information
Workshops will be held in February and March 2013 in five locations:  
Nanaimo              February 6th
Cranbrook            February 13th
Prince George     February 20th (half day in conjunction with the ABCFP AGM).  
Smithers               February 21st
Kamloops             March 7th

Investing in Place – Economic Renewal in British Columbia.
A book by Sean Markey, Greg Halseth, and Donald Manson more information

December Update from Minister Thomson  more information

Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - Summary of What's New Notices for January 2013 more information

Forest and Range Evaluation Program (FREP) Survey
This annual assessment gathers feedback from people involved in FREP on how well the program is working and opportunities for improvement. Survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Deadline is February 15th.  more information

Conference - 2013 Western Wildfire Conference — Firestorm 2003 Ten Years After, Kelowna, B.C. April 10-13, 2013
Presented by the  Western Silviculture Contractors Association. The conference will put a focus on the science, politics and operations of the increasingly critical interface between wild land fire and communities in the West more information

The latest edition of the Journal of Ecosystems and Management is now available
You must be subscribed to view full articles on-line. more information

UBC Master of Sustainable Forest Management Program
The Master of Sustainable Forest Management (MSFM) is a one year graduate degree that provides advanced study in natural resource stewardship.  Intended for graduates from science-based Bachelor degree programs, the MSFM is designed to satisfy the academic standards for accreditation administered by the Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board (CFAB), and to enable graduates to meet the core academic requirements for certification of the member agencies of the Canadian Federation of Professional Foresters Associations (CFPFA).   The application deadline is February 28, 2013 for the next program start date in Summer 2013. more information

2013 CanBio Mission to Finland  
A delegation of Canadian companies, communities, and non-profit organizations are traveling to the Wood Energy Solutions 2013 Conference February 11-15 for the purpose of finding out what's new in the European bioeconomy. more information