For the third year in a row, the City of Quesnel’s Forestry Initiatives Program is hosting the UBC Master of International Forestry (MIF) field school. This year, 16 students and their professors, are spending 2 days in Quesnel to give students the opportunity to speak with: land managers, small businesses, government reps from the local First Nations, the municipality, and the provincial government, as well as industry experts. The field school gives students the opportunity to learn about the relationships between people and forests and how these influence regional economic development and ecological sustainability.
Students from the 2022 MIF cohort have a mix of cultural and educational backgrounds and come from: UK, El Salvador, China, India, Canada, Indonesia, and Cameroon. Their collective research interests lie in: strengthening local economies while ensuring a healthy relationship with the land; fostering innovation through small and medium forest enterprises; and exploring how inclusive decision-making between First Nation and non-First Nation peoples results in better land use practices.
During the field school, the group will:
- visit the City of Quesnel’s Forestry Innovation Centre and learn about the proposed Three Rivers Community Forest;
- tour the Green Mountain fire scar with BC Wildfire Service to learn about community wildfire protection;
- visit Kandola Forest Products to see innovative forest manufacturing in action;
- hear from Moose Meadow Farms about their success in non-timber forest products;
- learn about innovative commercial thinning operations at West Fraser’s Tree Farm; and
- tour the West Fraser Plywood plant and talk about primary and secondary wood products.
The field school showcases those directly involved in forestry so that students can hear first-hand about issues such as climate vulnerability, a changing fibre basket, the devastating effects of wildfires and more. The students learn from various local people about the way in which the province, the municipality, the First Nation governments, along with the various tenure-holders, are collectively navigating decisions over forests.
The MIF program is part of the larger UBC Vibrant Forest Landscapes Lab, which has been collaborating with the City of Quesnel since 2020 to support research focused on identifying policy constraints and opportunities for small tenure holders and secondary wood manufacturers in BC. Researchers utilize Quesnel as a ‘learning landscape’ to develop regional capacity for integrated forest management and the production of high-value forest products. The objective, to strengthen resilience and innovation, cuts across several areas, including the management of forests not only for timber, but also for: climate change; ecosystem services; biodiversity; wildfire protection; bio-economy; and many other values.
As part of their degree, MIF students complete an internship in a company, organization, or as part of a research team. In 2021, the City of Quesnel’s Forestry Initiatives Program hosted 2 interns who conducted interviews of local small and medium scale forestry operators, both harvesting and manufacturing focused. The purpose of the interns’ research was to map out the connections between local forest enterprises to learn how they share knowledge and information to enable innovation. Finding ways to support and foster these types of enterprises is a crucial step for economic diversification because they create meaningful local employment while developing innovative harvesting and manufacturing processes.
The collaborative work between the Forestry Initiatives Program and the UBC Vibrant Forest Landscapes Lab is helping Quesnel transition towards a resilient and innovative forest economy that aligns with broader goals of landscape management and reconciliation. By working together everyone involved in forestry at the grassroots level is part of a global movement towards local decision-making over forests. Many countries are devolving rights to forests to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) and shifting responsibilities to local governments.
The changes to the forest sector happening locally in Quesnel are part of a large global movement and conversation. Quesnel exemplifies the complex fabric that is woven between people and the forests they call home; a tapestry of issues and challenges along with opportunities and innovations. To add to this tapestry, the annual MIF field school brings us alternate perspectives from all across the world and allows us to showcase the emerging skills and technologies we are utilizing that are helping to build a more resilient economy and ecologically sound land-use practices.
To learn more, please visit UBC Masters of International Forestry website.
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