Notice to all Silviculture, Consulting Forestry and
Nursery Operators and Managers:
2019 Annual Business and Market Summit
Wednesday, September 25th, 2019
9:00am to 3:00pm
Thompson Rivers University Conference Centre
Alpine Room, Campus Activity Centre Building
1055 University Drive
Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8
Folks:
This fall on Wednesday September 25th, we will hold our annual WFCA Annual Business and Market Summit for 2020, which will be one of the highest volume sowing and planting years in decades. This year’s sowing requests have our reforestation nurseries at or near capacity, growing, or planning to grow, an estimated 300-million plus seedlings for planting next year. It is worth noting that not all 2019 sowing requests solicitations were filled this year because there was no space to grow them. Nevertheless, the nursery sector has already been remarkable in its expansion to meet this volume. This year we are on track to plant 270-million seedlings. Forecasts show the strong reforestation demand may last over the next three to five years at around 300-million seedlings annually depending on public funding, wildfire and drought losses, and harvest levels.”
This increasing volume of reforestation work has already been felt across the sector in rising prices for services, increases in workers’ wage, especially in planting, and better margins for owners. But this sudden bulge in demand comes with some challenges. How well prepared is the planting sector to handle a 15% bump in volume in one year in 2020? All of us want to know how long this boom might last, particularly nursery owners who face a dilemma over adding capacity now and risk seeing the demand collapse later. Can all employers come up with the talent and labour capacity needed, not only for next year, but over the next three to five years? How are our clients likely to react to rising prices as the lumber sector goes through a downturn? What are the consequences for the reforestation sector if we fail to sow and plant the trees our government and licensee funders expect of us? What is the right amount of demand for our sector and how can we manage that?
These are just some of the questions we will attempt to answer this fall along with sharing information about this year’s reforestation season from the perspective of all actors including nurseries, consulting foresters and planting contractors. We will bring in presenters from the MFLNRORD to provide us the with the latest estimates on demand. BC Forest Safety Advocate Jordan Tesluk can report on what he has heard from workers across the province. And of course we will rely on you participants to speak up and have your say about how you are seeing things in our sector today and going forward. All this information will guide the WFCA in its agenda to keep the reforestation sector in business, profitable and successful.
There is no registration fee for this event and we encourage all WFCA members and non-members to attend. Please RSVP via email to admin@wfca.ca so we may plan accordingly.
JOHN
John Betts
Executive Director
Western Forestry Contractors’ Association