I have recently spoken to several contractors that have been asked to provide their SAFE Companies audit reports to clients, to assist the client in evaluating the contractors’ safety program. When selecting and hiring a contractor, a company can rest assured that a valid SAFE Companies certification demonstrates the potential contractors’ success in achieving a standard[1] set by the industry.

When publisher Kate Menzies invited me to write an article about what interests Society of American Foresters members these days, I jumped at the chance. Having worked in the woods for most of three decades, I have much in common with readers of Silviculture Magazine. Besides, I’m half Canadian — my mother was born on a farm near Grimshaw, Alberta — so I feel right at home with this Canadian-born publication.

Since summer 2010, reforestation companies have implemented modifications to their work methods.  The Director General of Strategic Policy and Planning (DGSPP) has taken a new direction with the stock delivery methods used for large tree plants: companies will now be receiving their large plants in their original boxes instead of in the cases that they have become accustomed to receiving.

Depuis l’été 2010, les entreprises de reboisement voient graduellement leur méthode de travail modifiée. En effet, la Direction générale des pépinières et des stations piscicoles (DGPSP) a amorcé un virage important dans le mode de livraison des plants de forte dimension : les entreprises reçoivent dorénavant leurs plants directement dans les récipients (caissettes), plutôt que dans les bacs auxquels elles étaient habituées.

Will Ontario’s New Tenure System Support Community-Based Forest Management?

When the Mountain pine Beetle epidemic was identified by the land and resource managers of BC the ability for the forest sector to respond and mitigate impacts was a call to action that has played a significant role in the transformation of the forest sector in BC.  First Nations leaders engaged with the province and the federal government to ensure their communities were contributing to mitigation efforts and together the forest sector embarked on comprehensive MPB Programs including the Forests For Tomorrow project.

Have you been ignoring those planters who work in running shoes?  Did you shrug off that knee injury claim that lasted 50 days because it’s the ‘name of the game’? Do you high five the planter who runs off the block to fit in one more bag up?

 Slips, trips and falls are the number one cause of workplace injuries in the silviculture industry. Between 2006-2010 they represented over $82 million in claims costs for forestry companies! 

Planting has been my primary source of income for the past eight years.  I started off a wonder-struck idealist at the tender young age of 17. I’ll admit, most of the wonder, and a good part of the idealism has been ground out in these past eight years.  Yet I come back year after year, for better or for worse.  Planting enabled me to travel the world, and fund my education.  It has provided me with the economic freedom to do as I please and for this I am truly grateful.

Could it be that Latin America will eventually surpass Asia as the world teak producer? Can tropical American countries rival or even surpass Burma, India and Indonesia as sources of this lucrative species, in the way the British Far East colonies took over from Brazil as the producer of rubber? This happened after Henry Wickham smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Amazon to Kew Botanic Gardens in the UK, after which they were sent to Asia in the final decades of the 19^th century.

In the October 2011 issue of Silviculture Magazine, John Kitchen makes a sensible argument for turning to woody energy crops as a source of clean energy. Many people from around the world share the excitement for biomass' potential to supplement our energy needs. For greenhouse growers and seedling producers, energy costs and productivity are top of mind.