The Tree Talk Blog

For the first few weeks at Tolko, my three coworkers and I spent our days meeting everyone in the Woodlands division, organizing equipment and going through various field and online training.

"I'd rather drag a firehose through hell than write an email."

A public opinion survey conducted by Abacus Data shows that Canadians are gaining a better appreciation for Canada’s forest industry and the contributions of its workers.

The United Nations (UN) has declared March 21 as International Day of Forests. Here are eight reasons why forests are important for our economy, our planet, and society at large.

Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) and the United Steelworkers (USW) fully support the legislation’s laudable intention to ensure that wood products are responsibly sourced from sustainably managed forests.

I was hired as a Woodlands intern with Weyerhaeuser Grande Prairie, which meant that I would be working within silviculture, operations, and planning in a split role. My summer was filled with all sorts of different jobs, such as boundary layout, block re-ribboning, drone flying, road maintenance, and many other jobs that continuously kept me on my toes.

I got a set list of blocks that were to be sprayed, and I needed to walk them to ensure that all waterways had 40-meter buffer boundaries flagged off and check to make sure that all other ephemeral streams were either dried up or not flowing. The last thing we want is to get chemicals into a waterway!

Normally I wouldn’t volunteer to wake up at 5am to sit in a truck for three hours or so but its beautiful around Smithers and I thought it would be a nice change from the endless burnt blocks and fire weed around Fraser Lake. Plus I was in good company with my two bosses and fellow summer student.

I’ve seen firsthand the effort that is taken to ensure that harvesting is done in the most sustainable way. Recent cut blocks are surrounded by multi-age stands, varying from 20 to 60 years old, ensuring that a large span of land is never cut at once. Having multi-age stands is important in ensuring that wildlife and biodiversity still have room to grow while we fulfill our wood needs.‍

The diversity present in nature has also helped me be more okay with myself. Nature shows me that diversity is a natural part of life and doesn’t make me any less.

That's why I knew I was going to stay in Lac-Saint-Jean. In Saint-Thomas, the plant is beautiful and the atmosphere is very pleasant. It's very easy to work with the people here, they are dynamic and want things to work. I am very happy in my region and I want to continue to develop here, in my region.

Final blog photos of my trip to the Yukon!