Kalin Uhrich of Canfor and Tom Nudds of the University of Guelph bestowed the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in Forestry
Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) announces Kalin Uhrich and Dr. Tom Nudds as the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award winners. This honour celebrates visionary leaders who have made remarkable and sustained contributions to Canada’s forest products sector.
With a career defined by leadership, innovation, and a deep commitment to sustainability and community, the recipients have played a pivotal role in shaping the future of forestry in Canada. This award recognizes not only decades of service, but also the lasting impact of their work on the people, communities, and the sector.
Uhrich worked in the forest industry for over 40 years and has acquired a wide array of experience in supervision and management positions in lumber manufacturing and forestry operations, including as Chief Forester. He is an advocate for sustainable forestry, serving as the Chair of the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada and the College of New Caledonia Research Forest Society which provides experiential student learning and research opportunities and first-hand experience in forest resource stewardship.
With over 170 papers, book chapters and technical reports in publication, Dr. Nudds is a trusted voice in the wildlife community. Now Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, his graduate research program focused on treating resource management policies as hypotheses and management interventions as experiments. His work covered species translocations, wildlife disease control, protected area design, and impacts of resource harvesting in fisheries and forests.
“We are proud to honour Kalin Uhrich and Dr. Tom Nudds with 2025 Lifetime Achievement Awards,” said Derek Nighbor, President and CEO of FPAC. “Their leadership has helped guide our sector through change and challenge, always with a focus on people, sustainability, and long-term success. Kalin and Tom’s contributions have left a positive mark on our industry and continue to inspire the next generation of forest sector leaders and partners,” Nighbor added.
Kalin Uhrich, Chief Forester, Canfor Corporation
Kalin is a UBC graduate (BSc '83) who began his forestry career with Canfor in 1984, spending 21 years in Fort St. James in various woodlands roles. He later held senior management and executive positions across the industry before returning to Canfor in 2016 as Chief Forester. In that role, he led strategic initiatives in sustainability, Indigenous relations, and forest policy, and represented Canfor on numerous provincial and national committees. Now retired, Kalin continues to advocate for sustainable forestry as Chair of the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada and the College of New Caledonia Research Forest Society.
“My career in forestry originated from my love of the outdoors. I recall as a youngster growing up in small towns that I enjoyed nature, unaware that the forest industry was the lifeblood of those towns.
“The forest industry is such a powerful economic engine and wonderful family provider, offering so many amazing career opportunities utilising a vast variety of skills. The forest industry remains vital to so many communities, contributing to the economic well-being for families and society as a whole.
“I have been blessed with the opportunities afforded me by Canfor and my other employers, to learn from and collaborate with so many dedicated and talented mentors, peers and colleagues. I am continually impressed of the amazing talent and dedication that so many people demonstrate, including the fantastic team at FPAC, the gold standard organization for excellence and service to members. Working with the people in the forest sector has been the most rewarding part of my career and the friendships I have forged are lifelong. I am very humbled and grateful for this wonderful tribute by FPAC and I thank you very much for this honour.” -Kalin Uhrich
Dr. Tom Nudds, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph
Tom received BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Windsor and a PhD from the University of Western Ontario. He began a career in wildlife ecology and conservation with the Canadian Wildlife Service at the Prairie and Northern Wildlife Research Centre in Saskatoon. He moved to the University of Guelph in 1981 where he taught and conducted research until he retired in 2012.
Much of his graduate research program emphasized the treatment of resource management policies as hypotheses, and management interventions as experiments, in diverse applications from species translocations, control of wildlife diseases, and protected area network design to effects of resource harvest in managed fisheries and forest ecosystems. In retirement, he consulted for the forest industry and continues to serve on Ontario’s Provincial Forest Technical Committee. He lives with his wife Lena on their restored wetland acreage where they raised their family outside Fergus, Ontario.
“I am very happy and honoured to be recognized by FPAC and, in particular, to have been recruited by Tolko Industries early in retirement to engage in policy-relevant research with a focus on at-risk species. I am very grateful for that experience and this award, which, on a personal level, vindicates the importance of robust, reliable science to assist evidence-based policy decisions.” -Tom Nudds.
For more information about the FPAC Awards of Excellence, visit: https://www.fpac.ca/awards/fpac-awards-of-excellence
FPAC provides a voice for Canada’s wood, pulp, and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade, and environmental affairs. As an industry with annual revenues exceeding $87.2B, Canada’s forest products sector is one of the country’s largest employers—providing 200,000 direct jobs and operating in hundreds of communities across the country. Our members are committed to collaborating with Indigenous leaders, government bodies, and other key stakeholders to develop a cross-Canada action plan aimed at advancing forest health, while supporting workers, communities and our environment for the long term.
.jpeg)
