Provincial Forest Policy – Update on Key Government Initiatives
Recent legislation and ongoing forest policy reform are aimed at transforming BC’s forest sector. Driving this change is the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and a new vision for forest management that prioritizes ecosystem health and resilience. In this panel, we heard the latest on these initiatives from senior government representatives, with a focus on what it means for community forests. Topics include the Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations; the Forest and Range Practices Act and changes to the Forest Act.
Moderated by Jennifer Gunter, BCCFA Executive Director
Speakers:
Eamon O’Donoghue, Associate Deputy Minister, Ministry of Forests
Julie MacDougall, Executive Director, Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Chief Forester
link to the presentation
Doug Kelly, Director, Forest Tenures Branch (no presentation)
Adaptation for Wildfire Resilience
This session put the focus on the important work of wildfire risk reduction. Jennifer Gunter opened the session with an update on the various projects and initiatives that the BCCFA is engaged with around fuel mitigation. And we heard from some of our partners in this work, including Steve Kozuki, Forest Enhancement Society BC (FESBC) and Lori Daniels, Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz and Kea Rutherford, Tree-Ring Lab at UBC Team, sharing their important research on the efficacy of fuel reduction treatments on CFAs.
Moderated by Randy Spyksma
Speakers:
Jennifer Gunter, Executive Director, BC Community Forest Association
link to the presentation
Steve Kozuki , Executive Director, Forest Enhancement Society BC (FESBC)
link to the presentation
Lori Daniels, Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz and Kea Rutherford, Tree-Ring Lab at UBC Team
link to the presentation
Community Forestry and the Law
In community forestry we sometimes are uncertain when to pull in outside professional services that are not technical forestry in nature, including lawyers. In this short session, Jeremy described the types of legal work that he often does for community forests – from log sales agreements and logging contracts, to regulatory work, board governance and relationship management. Jeremy has a unique perspective on law a pertains to community forestry because, as he told the group, “I’m a lawyer, but first I was a forester and still am.”
Speaker:
Jeremy Shelford, Corporate Commercial Lawyer, Partner, Ratcliff LLP
link to the presentation
Forest carbon offsets: know your options and know the risks
Community forests are asking if they could potentially incorporate carbon management into their operations. We asked Jason Fisher to bring us up to speed.
Keynote Speaker:
Jason Fisher, RPF, LLB, Partner, MNP
link to the presentation
Congratulations to Wetzin’kwa Community Forest, winner of the 2022 Robin Hood Memorial Award
For more information and a full press release, click here.
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