2007 WSCA Conference & AGM Dates – Western Forestry Contractors' Association

The WSCA 2007 Annual Conference has been confirmed for Prince George.

Dates: Tues Jan 30 to Fri Feb 2, 2007

Location: Coast Inn of the North
770 Brunswick Street
Prince George, BC V2L 2C2

For Hotel Reservations call:

(250) 563-0121
1-800-663-1144
(Please quote “WSCA Conference” for preferred rates)

For details on conference registration, corporate sponsorship, trade show booths and the Silviculture Employer OHS Course, please click on the links above or contact the WSCA Office at
(604) 736-8660 or email at admin@wfca.ca

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Western Silvicultural Contractors’ Association

27 November 2007

Silviculture Contractors, Consultants, Foresters et al:

Western Silviculture Contractors’ Association 2007 Annual AGM, Conference and Trade Show plus Employers’ Workshop/Training SAFE Company Program Prince George, B.C. January 30 through February 2, 2007 Coast Inn of the North

Just a heads up here folks on next year’s WSCA conference. First of all note the additional day of proceedings, Tuesday 30 January. This day and, if required, the morning of Wednesday 31 January will be dedicated to a technical session on the SAFE Company Program. The workshop will apply to both large and small employers. It will also give updates on the status and delivery times and models of the proposed training for silviculture supervisors, resource road driving for light trucks and vans, ATV training, wildfire fighting and prescribed burning.

The main part of the regular conference will revolve around that thing we live constantly with, but never can quite see clearly, called the future. It has particular relevance regarding our industry’s capacity challenges, the behaviour of our clients and our markets, the demands we might anticipate for our services down the road, and forest management’s strategic direction in general.

Confirmed speakers include:

Jim Shepherd: CEO Canfor
What will CANFOR look like in ten years? Where does Jim see the forest sector headed strategically? What will the largest firm in the province expect from its contractors in the future?

Greg Anderson: MoFR Provincial Ecosystem Restoration Manager
Greg probably has the one of the most demanding positions in the province today: he has to convince government that we need to restore key forest and range ecosystems after the ongoing assault on forest health and he needs to demonstrate we can do it. Two obstacles in the way of getting the program running include, the precariousness of political will and whether there is an industry with the skills and capacity to actually treat tens of thousands of hectares with prescribed burns, fuel management treatments and reforestation. That industry, by the way, is us.

Al McDonald: BCTS Seed and Seedling Planning Officer
Provincial sowing requests are obviously a reliable indicator of future reforestation programs. But only up to a few years. Al will provide those figures at the conference and take at look at the long term projections based on present trends.

Bruce Blackwell: B. A. Blackwell and Associates
Tens of thousands of hectares of ailing and beetle-killed wood has to have implications for future wildfire behaviour. Bruce will examine the potential for land scape scale wildfires in the future. He will also talk about strategic silviculture remedies and the possible conversion of this bio mass to something more productive than wildfire smoke.

Robin Dawes: Nursery Manager K & C Silviculture
Silviculture contracting and the nursery business have more in common than just seedlings. Robin will offer some practical advice and commentary on how contractors can work better with the nursery side of things. She will also explore how we need to challenge many of the current assumptions regarding how we grow and plant seedlings in this province as the future takes us in directions we have never experienced before.

Jordan Tesluk: Consultant and SFU Masters Student
Jordan has orchestrated two major field studies on the silviculture workforce tracking attitudes towards safety and job satisfaction as well as the ongoing demographic shift in the workforce. He will discuss his latest study and its implications for recruiting and retaining a high performing workforce in the future.

Dean McGeough: Chair of the Wildlife Danger Tree Committee
Dean will explain the contracting and safety ramifications of recent work by his committee regarding working in and under disease, fire and bug-killed stands. He will also clarify what is expected in general regarding wildlife danger trees on silviculture project blocks.

Jim Snetsinger: Chief Forester
Jim will describe the challenging work of anticipating the future effects of climate change and the current assault on forest health here in B.C. He will outline how these complex imperatives will affect future forest policy.

Roger Harris: BC Forest Safety Ombudsman
Roger will discuss his recently completed Review on Training and Certification which goes to the heart of the capacity challenges the harvesting and forestry sector face today. He will also outline his mandate as ombudsman and how the silviculture sector can make use of his special office.

Bob Gray: Gray Consulting Ltd
Bob has completed work for the BC SAFE Silviculture Project designing standard training for contract fire fighting and prescribed burn crews. He will introduce these proposed programs and how they will fit into future restoration work and the ongoing contract fire suppression sector.

Mike Apsey: Executive Director Forcast
A former B.C. deputy minister of forests and Council of Forest Industries CEO Mike suffers the benefit of seeing forest policy from at least two sides of the issue, if not more. With a history of forest policy involvement going back fifty years, and still a keen observer of the present, he offers some keynote comments and recommendations on what it will take to meet the future and all its forestry uncertainties.

Invited speakers include ministry of forest executives (still waiting confirmation) as well as consultants to discuss a proposed inter-firm comparison program for silviculture contractors. At the conclusion of the conference, once we have nailed down the future, a critical strategic session will be held to point the WSCA in the appropriate directions. No minor undertaking considering the various imperatives in play. I hope to see you there.

Make your plans now to attend this conference. For more information contact our office in Vancouver 604-736-8660.

I will send more updates as the conference program firms up.

John Betts
Executive Director
Western Silvicultural Contractors’ Association
Phone: 250-229-4380
hotpulp@netidea.com

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