The promise that forest carbon credits will provide a fresh source of funding for reforestation, forest health restoration and conservation, remains unfulfilled.  National carbon market mechanisms are scarcely buying.

In May a group of contractors and forest management heads got together in Truro, N.S. to discuss reactivating the association. The impetus was the shortcomings of the Registered Buyers Program which historically provided silviculture funding for small private woodlots. It may not be known throughout Canada that 60-70% of N.S. woodlands are privately owned by 30,000 owners. Since 1998, funding has been generated by a combination of landowners paying a percentage of wood sold, receiving mills paying a percentage of wood bought and the province paying a percentage.

The BC silviculture sector has always worked with the threat and application of penalties for anything less than near perfect quality performance. Recently, after a few decades’ hiatus, the planting quality inspection guidelines were reviewed and updated by the MFLNRO and contractors. Subsequently there have been successful workshops on implementing them, run jointly by the WSCA and the Forest Practices Branch. More are planned.

I wish I could take credit for that headline, but it’s not mine. I borrowed it from my colleagues Carlin Starrs and Tom Davidson, who have written an article entitled, ‘Seeing the Forest for the Tweets: Making the Most Out of the Convention Using Twitter’; the convention being the Society of American Foresters’ National Convention, to be held October 24–28 in Spokane, Washington. Starrs’ is SAF’s social media guru; Davidson, a forester and leadership consultant (www.DavidsonLeadership.com), writes the SAF Leader Lab column for The Forestry Source, SAF’s newspaper.

Silviculture contractors know the importance of a good silvicultural prescription. In most provinces across Canada, the responsibility for that prescription falls to the professional forester.  In Ontario we are a licensed body with over 830 members. That number has declined by more than 17% over the last five years. The universities in Ontario that offer Forestry degrees have seen declining enrolment in the program for a number of years. In fact, in 1993 the University of Toronto closed its undergraduate program (Bachelor of Science in Forestry) due to low enrollment.