YourForest

Resources

Max Nova

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

06.17 - 06.22: “Forests are valuable for more than just what you can cut down and roll out of the forest.”

Takeaways

“Private landowners are where the climate economy and land management happen” (05.31)

Max is the co-founder and COO of NCX, which began 14 years ago with his undergrad friend to help landowners understand the value of forests and measure and pay for the values they provide.

Discover the true value of your land (09.35)

Max shares that landowners can participate in many public and private programs to help cover the cost of planting trees, protect wildlife habitat and maybe even get paid for carbon credits. NCX helps landowners access nature-positive assets and develop new revenue streams for their property.

Money is not everything (13.20)

While financial returns from the land are important to maintain the land, most landowners rank ROI lower than being out in nature, leaving a legacy for their children, and connecting with wildlife.

“Nature never stands still” (20.30)

Max elaborates on the different programs available for different categories of land use across different geographies, with varied terms of payment. He emphasizes that landowners should understand the timings, risks and rewards of each, given the ever-evolving nature of the forest.

The conundrum of net zero emissions (24.56)

Max explains that many large corporations are working towards net zero emissions by reducing emissions or buying carbon offsets by a certain date in the future. However, the change made by these declarations is debatable as many corporations are coming up on their goal date, causing many to not commit to net zero goals.

Balance trade offs against your values and objectives (31.54)

Max explains the concepts of baseline and additionality in carbon credits, where one needs to be mindful of how purchasing carbon credits can reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Natural regeneration is a more accepted and supported option.

Everyone wants a healthier planet (46.14)

NCX’s vision is a world where landowners own land that is fully and fairly valued for all nature-positive benefits it is providing. He believes that everyone wants less carbon in the atmosphere, more wildlife, and healthier soil.

“Perfection is impossible” (49.17)

Max shares the different kinds of programs that support natural regeneration, where the best fit for landowners will depend on their preferences. TMax believes that having a humble learning mindset instead of a critical approach will help navigate complex forest dynamics.

“Keep your head on a swivel” (1.08.08)

NCX works on laying the foundations of research and education to prepare for a future when fiscal responsibilities of different forest values have been fairly distributed by the powers that be. If you are a landowner, visit the NCX website to get a free initial assessment of your options.

Wildfire has always been here, and humans have always had a relationship with it. These days, we have recognized that our relationship to fire has been less than ideal. Wildfire smoke has consumed our summers, wildfire threat has persisted in our minds, and there seems to be no end in sight. So, how do we begin to change our relationship to fire? How do we go from surviving it, to thriving with it? The knowledge exists, the solutions are there, how do we make it happen? Transformational change is hard.

Resources

Lori Daniels

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

23.23 - 23.34: “Trees are really amazing; trees will colonize till they establish and grow and persist in any space where the seedling can arrive and be given an opportunity to survive.”

Takeaways

The more awareness, the better (4.53)

Lori highlights the importance of fire safety awareness and training, since “almost half of the fires in Canada are started by people”.

The Centre for Wildfire Coexistence (10.34)

The Centre for Wildfire Coexistence at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia looks at the recovery of ecosystems and communities in BC.

What tree rings tell us (12.54)

Lori’s research takes place at the Tree Ring Lab at UBC, processing samples from the forest to understand how historical fire regimes functioned across a range of ecosystems.

Historical fires (15.45)

Tree rings provide some quantitative metrics that demonstrate Indigenous knowledge of the fire intervals and their impacts on the ecosystems where the fires burned.

Viewing fire as bad (20.03)

Lori points out that European settlers made it illegal for Indigenous people to practice cultural burning, creating “an abrupt change in the way that fire functioned in the ecosystem”.

The fire deficit (21.49)

Lori shares that cultural burning maintains heterogeneity and variability of forests and diversity of ecosystems essential to maintaining biodiversity in BC.

The fire suppression paradox (26.21)

Reintroducing fire as proactive mitigation is important in forests where the fire regime has been disrupted and fuel has accumulated, putting communities and other values in danger.

Wildfire behaviour (27.58)

Lori lists three critical factors that control wildfire behaviour and effects - the interactions between weather and topography, the intensity of the fires, and the fuels.

A challenging situation (38.13)

Concerns about smoke stopped prescribed burns that provided the benefits of surface fires, leading to the accumulation of fuel and high-intensity fires.

Local capacity building (54.47)

Lori’s advice is to empower BC’s 154 municipalities, and 204 Indigenous communities through funding and education to execute their wildfire resilience plans.

Mitigation is like insurance (1.03.04)

Climate change dictates more such fires in the future, predicting rising costs of firefighting and medicines for the vulnerable, and damage to homes, farmlands, water supply and habitats.

Cognitive dissonance (1.19.34)

Lori hopes that the provincial legislature will understand the importance of contributing funds in order to make changes in policies and practices that will govern forest management.

Be fire smart (1.26.21)

Investing in fire-proofing one’s home and understanding how fuel treatments and prescribed burning can help are steps to take toward changing fire behaviour to reduce wildfire risk.

Win-win situation (1.33.26)

Some First Nations use the biomass they remove from the forests around their community to create heat energy that supports their medical center and offices.

Nature knows best…right? So, our forest management strategies should try to emulate nature? That’s what we used to think. Unfortunately, our ideas on how to emulate natural disturbance rarely result in something that acts like a natural disturbance. Bottom line, we are not fire, and we want different things from fire, so we need to not act like fire. We have had some good ideas, and our minds were in the right place, but it is now time to shake things up. Let’s put that big head of ours to use and come up with something that would make mother nature proud.

Resources

Ellen Macdonald

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

43.23 - 43.32: “The more complex and variable and flexible you make regulations, the more difficult it is to go and see if people are following them or not.”

Takeaways

Sustainable forest management (10.46)

Ellen concurs with the widely held definition of sustainable forest management as “managing our forests in a way that sustains the full diversity of values they have”. This differs from the old definition of sustained yield forestry which focused on sustaining timber production.

Emulation of natural disturbances (15.31)

Ellen talks about the origin of sustainable forest management in the 1980s-90s motivated by a desire to sustain a full range of values and inspired by natural disturbance patterns. Ellen believes the emulation of natural disturbances is one tool to achieve ecosystem management goals.

Nature knows best (19.23)

Ellen points out that using natural forest ecology to inform forest management goes back to the 1920s-30s when nature was used as an inspiration to understand how forests functioned and regenerated after disturbances depending on the species there to inform silviculture practices.

Identifying the real objective (28.12)

The important differentiator of natural disturbance, whether fire, insects or major disturbances is that “they don’t kill everything”. They create opportunities for trees to regenerate and create structural diversity in the forest. The focus should be on forest management plans purposefully emulating the effects of natural disturbance instead of the patterns of natural disturbance.

Challenges in sustainable forest management (43.00)

Ellen finds that the complexity of implementing regulations related to sustainable forest management is a challenge. There are also worries that some may take advantage of the flexibilities in the regulation or make mistakes in interpreting how natural disturbance effects should be emulated since it is not a well-tested hypothesis. Additionally, forests take a long time to grow, so it will be a slow process.

The old and the new (51.17)

Ellen uses the example of deadwood to explain how the understanding of different components of a forest evolves over time. Different technologies today can help us monitor, document and inventory forest biodiversity which allows for more opportunities to manage forests better.

Always learning (1.07.08)

Ellen advises learning from Indigenous peoples’ history with landscape management and the tools they use. She hopes “forest management can be viewed like science - as a never-ending set of questions rather than a series of disconnected truths”.

If you liked this podcast, please rate and review it, share it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to [email protected].

Image curtesy of National Geographic and Eye of Science through Sue Grayston

In forest management, we spend a lot of time on the things we can see; charismatic megafauna, trees, pests and plants. But what about the things we can’t see? What if I told you there was an entirely unexplored ecosystem below our feet? One that has more biodiversity than we can imagine. This community is responsible for half of the carbon sequestration of the forest, and the maintenance of ecosystem function for above ground species. This life beneath our feet is as much responsible for the forests we love as the biggest trees and the cutest caribou. Let’s show it some love. 

Resources

Continuous root forestry—Living roots sustain the belowground ecosystem and soil carbon in managed forests

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Takeaways

New frontiers (10.17)

Cindy highlights that they found archaea populations in forest soil, a different type of organism which can also carry out nitrification of the soil.

Unseen but important (14.41)

Cindy shares that it is difficult to advocate for the importance and inclusion in forest management of organisms that can’t be seen.

A whole world in a spoon of soil (19.52)

Next-generation sequencing techniques help us understand the workings of organisms in the soil.

Microbial processes (24.51)

Sue describes the labelling techniques through which they label trees with heavy isotopes of carbon sources similar to the carbon from trees, allowing them to identify groups of organisms that are important in using that carbon.

Saving the world (30.20)

Sue spotlights the fact that many organisms spend all or some of their lives in the soil creating a link between organisms above and below. Forest soil microbes remove methane and nitrous oxide from the atmosphere and clean water waste.

Knowledge is power (34.41)

Cindy believes that understanding the workings of soil organisms is better than using chemicals for biological controls. Microbes process organic matter and help lock it into the soil.

How forest harvest affects microbial communities (48.40)

Sue found that dispersed retention in clear cuts has a better function in retaining microbial diversity and its functioning across the cut block. Cindy adds that mycorrhizal fungi communities depend on the dynamic flux created by trees.

Below-ground diversity leads to a resilient ecosystem (56.32)

Every plant species has its temperature range of comfort which is being affected due to climate change. Recent wildfires have also been devastating for the soil biome.

Inoculant seed zones (1.06.59)

Sue and Cindy talk about how unaffected forests can act as seed zones after a wildfire. Nitrogen fixers prevent the soil from declining if there is a wildfire again.

What’s below is as important as what’s above ground (1.22.33)

Cindy offers a different way of thinking about forest management - that sites can not only be saved but also improved using the understanding of below-ground ecosystems. She laments the lack of care with which soil is currently viewed.

Stand and landscape level diversity (1.36.21)

When there is a diversity of tree and plant species, there will also be below-ground diversity. Built into that maintenance of stand productivity is using improved genetic stocks that are programmed to grow faster as well as silviculture techniques.

Ongoing monitoring (1.41.45)

Cindy talks about the need to monitor soil biodiversity and measure key processes and the amount of soil organic matter, especially mineral-associated organic matter. She reinforces the need to develop resilient forests, and the first step would be to update forestry policies.

What stands in the way of the future of sustainable forest management? There are many answers to this question, but the deepest answer may be colonialism. The very structure of our governing bodies and institutions have made it very difficult to try new things. It is possible that our colonial system of organization and decision making now stands in the way of progress. Organizations have to fight against the system to make new decisions, and move in new directions. The first thing we have to do is recognize the problem.

Resources

Ira Sutherland

Dynamics in the landscape ecology of institutions

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

1.27.55 - 1.28.02: “Can we really transform these systems into something generally sustainable if we cannot transform ourselves first?”

Takeaways

Sustainability (10.00)

Ira defines sustainability as a dynamic process of constant learning. Institutions are meant to be constantly monitoring changes in the environment and adapting and evolving in response.

Institutions (18.51)

Institutional processes are the activities conducted on the land base which provide feedback for monitoring to the institutions.

Power (21.55)

The arrival of the provincial colonial government became the main decision-making authority for all lands in BC. From the 1970s to the 1990s, environmental NGOs began having some say with international boycotts against BC timber products. Since the 1970s, First Nations ancestral rights have also been recognized through case law in BC.

Wise use (24.10)

In BC, many areas were protected as forests and wasteful early timber harvesting practices were modified to prevent wildfires and ensure more resources for future generations.

Sustained yield (28.17)

Sustained yield forest management in 1948 formalized the goals BC had for its forests, and it sought to have a continuous or even perpetually increasing supply of timber.

Intention vs. outcome (30.15)

Ira highlights that early institutional functions in BC did not consider Indigenous land rights and the needs of the Indigenous people and it led to the 1990s pine needle epidemic and fires since.

The forest practices code (34.25)

The forest practices code was introduced in 1995. 11 different values have to be managed alongside timber, such as biodiversity.

Timber bias (36.56)

Ira laments that even though new policies have been created, they are layered on top of the old ones, but it doesn’t remove the emphasis on sustained yield in forest management in BC.

Change (44.50)

BC has restricted converting forest to regulated stands to 15% of the land, elevated First Nations decision-makers in the area and created new types of conservation zones.

Social values (59.40)

Ira’s research paper measures biophysical structures within the forest and uses that as a proxy to estimate the capacity of a given forest and provide multiple ecosystem services.

Multi-dimensional approach (1.03.15)

Ira opines that better data on multiple ecosystem services and a structured decision-making process need to inform forest management practices.

Polycentric forest governance (1.11.11)

Managing the forest locally is the top recommendation in Ira’s paper to effectively monitor changes, understand local values and make management decisions that reflect those.

Forest management recommendations (1.14.30)

The second recommendation in Ira’s paper is to maintain and restore complex landscapes, with heterogeneity at the stand and landscape scale for ecologically resilient landscapes. The third recommendation is to help institutions adapt through reflective processes.

As modern culture expands, wilderness dwindles in its wake. It has become more challenging to create empathy for land through real experience. Luckily, there are people like Jim Lane. Jim teaches an Ecology and Conservation course for High School students. His approach gets students out in the bush to experience nature first hand. They learn about scientific observation, interconnectedness, ecology, history and colonialism all through observing nature. All this without leaving school property.

Resources

Jim Lane

Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

15.29 - 15.37: “A land ethic changes the role of a human from a conqueror to just a plain ordinary citizen of the biotic community.”

Takeaways

Authentic learning (04.54)

Jim always wanted to be a high school science teacher, influenced by his teachers. As a child, he loved being outside and has turned his passion for the outdoors into a profession.

Field ecology and conservation (12.40)

Jim’s students are tasked with designing a way to measure the forest. The empathy for the forest is developed as a product of that process. He teaches Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic to help students see themselves as part of the natural world. A ‘sit spot’ exercise involves authentic journaling of natural observations.

Sit Spot (20.19)

In interviewing former students, Jim learned that the ‘sit spot’ exercises had helped students overcome stress and gave them a space to process their feelings and find themselves, alongside discovering the dynamics of the natural world.

Building empathy (30.14)

Jim reflects that hope and trust are important for students to feel engaged in a course such as this. He introduces them to different birds and their lifestyles, makes them taste the bark of aspen, or challenges them to write down observations of the forest from memory. “Those experiences where you are pushed beyond that comfort zone is where you start to build… empathy”, he notes.

“Knowing that there’re things you don’t know” (43.35)

Jim observes that land and most of the natural world don’t move in a timeframe that humans understand. He shows his students how the knowledge of just one tree can “not only unlock the history of the land that it grew on but also that history of the people on the land”.

Respecting the forest (1.05.27)

Jim believes that seeing the forest over a long period helps develop respect and appreciation for it, knowing it takes very long to replant it.

Forests and fires (1.08.15)

Jim’s advice to other teachers who are looking to encourage authentic learning is to allow students to have authentic experiences with the forest. He laments how fires have made it dangerous and difficult to be outdoors. He narrates how a researcher interviewed Indigenous Elders on managing a forest using good fire, but that advice has not been followed. The destruction from wildfires has also damaged the cultural activities of the Indigenous.

If you liked this podcast, please rate and review it, share it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, tag a friend, and send your feedback and comments to [email protected].

The Boreal Forest is the worlds LARGEST forested biome! Understanding the inner workings of such a callosal giant can be overwhelming. Now add climate change to the mix. What does the future hold? Luckily, an enormous team of researchers have banded together to create this incredible book that details what we need to do to keep the Boreal Forest healthy, and thriving, for the foreseeable future. Did I mention this incredible resource is completely FREE? See show notes for that link.

Resources

Boreal Forests in the Face of Climate Change: Sustainable Management (Volume 74)

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

07.46 - 07.54: “When I look at the current situation, I feel like the major challenge of humanity right now is climate change.”

Takeaways

For the love of boreal forests (04.39)

Sylvie is an Emeritus Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada, Miguel is the Professor of Forest Ecology and Guillaume is the Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Quebec. The book they created is written to draw attention to the boreal forest, which represents 25% of the forest cover in the world.

Inclusive writing (14.40)

Sylvie mentions that between 60 and 170 authors from different fields - forestry, ecology and environmental science - came together to create this book. Miguel was surprised by the support received for the book.

Healthy and resilient forests under climate change (21.33)

Miguel highlights that it is essential to maintain a balance between natural and managed landscapes in order to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Sylvie points out that taking a deterministic approach to forestry does not work in the face of a constantly changing natural world.

Ecosystem management on the disturbance regime (28.42)

Sylvie explains that fire creates diversity at the landscape level which harvesting doesn’t allow. By understanding the natural disturbance regime of the forest, they can better manage the managed forest. The current disturbances are related to temperature fluctuations from climate change, which impact the health and resilience of forests.

Climate change is here (36.19)

Miguel urges listeners to note how frequent climate change impacts have become, and provides examples from different regions that have had hurricanes and storms. Guillaume notes that lakes in some northern countries are becoming browner.

Managing forests for the future (50.55)

Sylvie shares some tactical decisions made for management planning, including diversifying seed sources and strategic planning of annual allowable count. Miguel adds that they want to preserve forests applying ecosystem management and diversity plantation to increase productivity and tap into their carbon sequestration potential.

Human - forest interactions (59.10)

Miguel says human-forest interactions will be the basis of forest management in the future, to achieve sustainability in the economy, ecology and society. He touches upon the spiritual aspect of Indigenous forest interaction and how Indigenous communities value preserving their ecosystems.

Love is the greatest force (1.11.51)

Miguel believes that people must be more flexible in their approaches in the light of the new information on global climate change. Their book speaks to this commonality across the globe, and speaks to cooperation amongst scientists everywhere to improve solutions.

Why is tree equity important? They are just trees, right? So what? They don’t impact health, wealth, quality of life? They just look good!

Well, in fact trees do ALL of these things. They drastically reduce deadly heatwaves, reduce breathing problems, shelter your home from the elements, reduce drainage costs, increase your mood, and save you money in all kinds of other ways. Now a new tool shows us which communities are receiving these benefits and which are not. Urban communities in particular are dangerously low on tree cover. We can help deliver basic human rights to those that need it just by planting trees.

Resources

American Forests

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

10.45 - 10.54: “Trees are important for people and… they are [an] essential part of our climate justice conversations and our health justice conversations.”

Takeaways

Data can be democratized (03.47)

Benita explains that American Forests is focusing on ensuring tree equity in urban areas. so that all communities can benefit from greenery. 

Tree equity (07.19)

Julia points out that the Tree Equity Score tool makes it visually apparent using maps that the lack of greenery in poorer communities is a national issue.

Social and climate injustices (11.50)

Neighbourhoods with the fewest residents of colour tend to have 3 times more tree canopy per person and are 3 degrees cooler. Areas with the lowest poverty rates have double the tree canopy per person and are 6 degrees cooler than areas with the highest poverty rates.

Trees are the jack of all trades (14.29)

Julia highlights that trees provide many different benefits to communities, including heat regulation, absorption of pollution and mental health.

Baseline tree cover (22.18)

Benita celebrates the 1.5 billion dollars of funding American Forests has unlocked in partnership with US Forests towards protection and maintenance of trees in urban communities to ensure tree equity.

Broadening horizons (28.29)

Benita talks about how a big part of their work is to involve local communities in the conversation on their local cultural context and needs. Planting and maintaining trees also creates employment in the communities.

A human-centered approach to filling gaps in the urban forest (32.58)

Julia explains that the Tree Equity Score is a free tool American Forests created as a prioritization system, which provides a score from 1 to 100 based on a combined measure of tree canopy and social and climate health. 

Breaking down the Tree Equity Score (35.15)

Julia delineates the different parts of the Tree Equity Score - the tree canopy goal and the priority measure.

Data is powerful to help change minds (40.58)

Benita recalls that developing a rigorous tool was critical to move the cause of tree equity forward at a local governance level, just as it was to make the tool free and open.

A holistic solution (47.31)

The user guide accompanying the Tree Equity Score tool describes how to calculate the benefits of reaching different equity score targets.

Coming together for tree equity (54.30)

American Forests recently launched the Tree Equity Alliance to bring other national organizations together on the issues of urban greening and environmental justice.

A sense of urgency (1.00.14)

Benita expresses a sense of urgency to advance tree equity with local leaders and decision makers since “some communities are much more likely to be sick or die than other communities”.

How we value forests is changing, and our management strategy is often playing catch up. As a result, forest management in British Columbia is undergoing a paradigm shift. It is a values shift. A more holistic approach to managing forests that accounts for more than just the sustainability of trees. Old Growth was the lighting rod, ecosystem health is the goal. Garry Merkel came on to give us the run down how things area changing and why.

Resources

A New Future For Old Forests: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/forestry/stewardship/old-growth-forests/strategic-review-20200430.pdf 

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA): https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/indigenous-people/new-relationship/united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

08.32 - 08.55: “The forest is not the ecosystem; the forest is the product of the ecosystem. The ecosystem is the whole environment - all the species together, the relationships between those, the different water cycles, carbon cycles, sun, etc… that all result in conditions that can foster certain kinds of forests.”

Takeaways

A change is needed (04.48)

Garry shares that people are unhappy with the way forests are managed unsustainably and with values compromised.

Trees are not commodities (08.24)

Garry explains that a forest that is burnt or blows over comes back as the same forest in an intact ecosystem.

Co Governance (11.45)

Garry and Al recommended that the BC Government build a strategy collaboratively with the Indigenous community to prioritise ecosystem health with consistent policies in a 3 zone framework.

Preserving old growth (15.39)

Garry suggests changing silviculture practices from clear cut to more natural disturbance type to maintain ecosystems and increase the targets for old growth.

A big societal shift (20.50)

Garry believes the shift to protecting old growth requires three big shifts - shifting to joint governance with Indigenous communities, shifting to inclusive, multi-sectoral regional based planning and decision making and shifting our entire mental framework from focusing on individual resources to focusing on ecosystems.

Sustainability is the journey (26.20)

Garry thinks this shift will be more sustainable even as it changes our economic relationships with the land.

“Life is what happens when you are planning what to do” (39.57)

Garry speaks about the challenges of implementing changes with COVID and the varied 200+ First Nations in BC. He is working on implementing the Forest Landscape Plan in BC.

Preserving forest values (45.15)

Garry laments that there are processes currently taking place that haven’t received consent from First Nations and that not all percentages of old growth protection have been met.

“Moving at the speed of understanding and trust” (1.00.46)

Garry observes that many industries are realizing the importance of a holistic approach to land management.

Science and wisdom (1.10.12)

Garry suggests each individual begin their own learning journey, communicate their vision with their local representatives and learn from Indigenous wisdom about land management.

The paradigm shift (1.15.47)

Garry explains, “A paradigm shift is simply a significant change in thought”, and action follows a paradigm shift.

Living in harmony with nature (1.21.48)

Garry shares how different countries have adopted different land management practices and how they are transforming their approaches.

What better way to learn about Old Growth and Big Trees then to talk to a guy who thinks about nothing else!? Greg Herringer spends his work time finding big trees, talking about big trees and creating programs to protect big trees. He also spends his free time going on expeditions to find more big trees. This guy is THE Big Tree Guy! We try to answer the question, how do we protect big trees in a world that need wood fiber? Greg sees a path forward.

Resources

Greg Herringer

Old Growth Deferrals

Special Tree Protection Regulation

Big Tree Registry

Quotes

33.20 - 33.25: “Too many people confuse hearing and listening as the same thing and they are entirely different.”

Takeaways

Personal and professional passions (04.24)

Greg is a Forest Technologist at British Columbia Timber Sales. He is passionate about preserving large tree ecosystems and was part of the 80s-90s revolution to protect old growth on Vancouver Island.

Tree tools (08.22)

Greg explains the tools used to extract a sample from the trunk of the tree and extrapolate the findings to learn more about the age of the tree based on the visible growth rings.

Planting by the rules (11.26)

Greg had a decade-long career as a tree planter during which he began developing a curiosity for big trees. He feels positive about the special tree protection regulation the government has passed along with the BC old growth program to protect large trees from being harvested.

A sustainable and holistic approach (16.15)

Based on his work with many universities, Greg believes a fundamental shift is coming in how harvesting forests is viewed by the new generation of forest professionals, including forging partnerships with First Nations.

A century is a blip for a tree, but a lifespan for humans (19.28)

Greg shares people's reactions on his tours of old-growth forests. He encourages people to slow down and “experience the old-growth forest as it should be”, including exploring forest bathing.

The human side of forestry (31.20)

Developing personal relations with others is the most important skill in forestry, according to Greg. Understanding what the public wants the forests to be will help guide forest restoration practices for the future.

“The forest isn’t static” (35.19)

Greg discusses the terms of the special tree protection regulation, sharing that the required buffer area around a tree was a compromise between the industry and the ENGOs. He lists examples of some old-growth trees that are still evolving.

Wanted dead or alive (39.35)

Greg points out that the tree protection regulation does not differentiate between live and dead trees because of the value of standing dead trees to wildlife habitat.

What nature really is (42.43)

Greg recounts his trip to Vernon Bay to discover giant trees between 800 and 2200 years old.

When we all come together (01.07.30)

BC Timber Sales has developed a voluntary program in conjunction with Western Forest Products to target the most valuable commercial species for protection.

Stand up for what you believe in (1.17.42)

By following the special tree protection regulations, Greg feels good about acting in line with his morals and ethics.

Land back (1.34.10)

A large portion of the land will be returned to the stewardship of the First Nations to manage according to their traditions and intergenerational expertise.