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  Congratulations to all newly appointed Cabinet Ministers and a special congratulations to Rich Coleman, Minister of Forests and Doug Konkin who was re-appointed as Deputy Minister. We look forward to working with the Minister and staff on issues facing British Columbia's number one industry. I would also note that Larry Pederson, former Chief Forester and head of BC Timber Sales, has been appointed Deputy Minister at Agriculture & Lands. Well done, Larry. Changing subjects completely, I have just returned from China where I was part of a technical mission the purpose of which was to promote further the use of wood as a building material. As many readers are aware this is a market place with huge potential that we must actively and aggressively explore. Finally, I am pleased to report that I have been asked to Chair the Forest Industry Advisory Committee to the BC Competition Council. I am honored to accept and look forward to working with industry colleagues on this significant task.  John Allan |
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 Community dinners are an important means for COFI to communicate with the people who are key to helping us define the role of the forest industry in the province. The communities are important to the forest industry and the forest industry is important to the communities. Meeting with community leaders in this way ensures that we are able to not only communicate important issues facing the industry but as important, we are able to listen to the leaders communicate the issues of concern to the local communities and the province. On May 26, the COFI Board of Directors met in Vernon followed by the inaugural Community Dinner of the year at the Best Western, Vernon Lodge. More than 60 people gathered from the North Okanagan region to hear from COFI President and CEO John Allan. Board Chair Len Pettman acted as the Master of Ceremonies introducing the special guests and guest speakers beginning with Vernon Acting Mayor Patrick Nicol who provided a welcome from the City of Vernon. John Allan provided an update on the ongoing softwood lumber dispute with the United States and its impact on the interior forest industry with a presentation entitled, "Canada / US Trade in Softwood Lumber and the BC Forest Industry". To view John Allan's presentation to the Community Dinner guests go the web page: www.cofi.org//library_and_resources/presentations/2005/pdf/VernonComDinnerMay262005.pdf |
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 Natural Resource Management Camps COFI North Forest Education Program in partnership with local forest companies, the Ministry of Forests and UNBC recently hosted two Natural Resource Management Career Awareness Camps in School District No 91 (Nechako Lakes) and School District No 28 (Quesnel). The two camps brought together strong academic high school students and their teachers for two days of hands-on workshops to learn about the complexities of resource management and its associated careers. Students and teachers participated in workshops such as wildlife management, harvesting and road engineering, archaeology, silviculture, riparian/fish management, cruising and block layout, ecology and soils, and forest health hosted by various professionals. Highlights of the Nechako Lakes camp were staying in Canfor's Malaput logging camp and participating in the Integrated Resource Management Plan Challenge. Teams of five squared off as to which team could come up with the best IRM. After being judge by a team of professional foresters, the winning team members were each awarded $200.00 scholarships towards the cost of post secondary education. Natural Resource Management Career Awareness Camps are hosted every fall and spring involving students from eight north central school districts. Asia Bound Chris Lear, COFI North Forest Education Manager and Chris Mushumanski, Forestry Teacher in School District No 91, Nechako Lakes, will travel to Japan and China June 21st to July 8th to learn how BC wood products are being marketed and used in the two countries. Assisted by COFI and CanadaWood staff in both countries, the two will tour various sites such as the Mitsui Home Panel Plant and Tokyo Lumber Terminal, Kingakuji Temple and Kitayama Sugi Information Center in Kyoto, Nanjing Forestry University in Nanjing, and Dream Home Canada in Shanghai. Upon their return, they will be giving presentations to community groups and developing teaching resources on the emerging Asian markets for high school teachers. For more information contact Chris Lear, Forest Education Manager by phone at (250) 614-4352 or e-mail: lear@cofi.org. |
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The Commonwealth Forestry Association seeks "To promote the sustainable management, use and conservation of forests and forest lands throughout the world for socio-economic advancement and maintenance of the natural environment." Despite its name, the CFA extends beyond the Commonwealth - for example the most recent issue of its journal dealt exclusively with forestry in China. However, participation in the CFA by Canadian foresters has been quite limited with only 102 members. This inaugural dinner meeting was intended to raise the profile of international forestry and the role that CFA in BC and Canada can play in this. For more information about the Commonwealth Forestry Association go to the CFA website: www.cfa-international.org or contact Dr. John Innes, Forest Renewal BC Chair in Forest Management and Director, International Programs, Faculty of Forestry UBC by phone at (604) 822-6761 or by e-mail: john.innes@ubc.ca. |
 COFI Forest Education for the southern interior has continued to be active. In April, post-secondary recruiters from UBC and BCIT toured high schools in the Central and North Okanagan-Shuswap to highlight forestry programs at their schools. As well, secondary students were given some insight and understanding into forest management and the diversity or jobs available to graduates within the industry. National Forest Week presentations were once again a big success in April and May, as industry volunteers and educators made forest health presentations to elementary schools around the southern interior, covering topics such as diseases, defoliators, bark beetles and fire. In all, over 12,000 students received the presentation. Many thanks to all of the foresters and educators who volunteered to participate in this undertaking!!
A new teaching resource on the Mountain Pine Beetle was distributed to all elementary schools in BC in May. This binder package was developed by the BC Market Outreach Network in conjunction with COFI's Northern Operations Forest Education Manager, Chris Lear to provide teachers with up-to-date information on this provincial epidemic. Southern Interior educators Deb Sluggett and Jen Stewart created additional materials on forest health that included a general forest health lesson, a song CD, a forest health poster, and blue stain wood samples, which were added to the Mountain Pine Beetle binder and distributed to interior schools. The Interior Logging Association's forest education van has hired a summer student who is acting as driver/presenter for van bookings in the coming months. Geoff Smart has been busy organizing a schedule of school and community visits from May through August to provide students and the general public with an opportunity to learn more about BC's #1 industry. COFI's Deb Bazett accompanied the van as a guest presenter on visits to Summerland, Penticton and Vernon schools. The van also will be visiting East Kootenay schools around Cranbrook in June hosted by East Kootenay forest educator, Norma Blissett. The second issue of the Learn Forestry News is due to be released in mid- June and can be accessed at www.learnforestry.com, a site which contains many of the forest education teaching resources developed in the Southern Interior by Okanagan educators Deb Sluggett and Jeannie Steele. This edition of the newsletter was compiled by COFI South forest education coordinator Deb Bazett on behalf of the Okanagan education team. Notification about the web link is sent to several hundred industry and education contacts with the goal being to provide information about forest education projects and events around the province and to act as a forum for sharing ideas and resources. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please send your request to bazett@cofi.org. Planning for next year is already beginning to take place as forest educators teleconference to discuss next year's events, National Forest Week themes, teaching kit distribution, upcoming events and a new video project in the works to develop a more updated resource for teachers on the high-tech logging machinery. One event southern interior forest educators will be planning on attending in the coming year will be the ForestEdWest conference January 26-29 in Banff. This is an opportunity to network with delegates from across Western Canada who are involved in forest education programs. Another conference will take place in October and will give elementary school teachers a chance to attend a workshop on the new forest education video on the high-tech machines of the logging industry presented to teachers by Deb Sluggett. This video is being funded by many groups, including Interior Logging Association members, ILA trades, WCB, COFI, Forest Expo and the TLA. Okanagan educators, along with COFI's Deb Bazett, will be collaborating at the same conference, as they offer teachers a chance to take a field tour in the Vernon area to learn about forest management and forest technology. For more information on some of the forest education projects and activities in the southern interior, check out the Learn Forestry website: www.learnforestry.com or contact Deb Bazett by phone at (250) 866-9663 or by e-mail: bazett@cofi.org. |
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  1.AD/CVD Duties On June 9, the NAFTA Panel overturned the Department of Commerce's (DOC) determination in the second remand in the investigation phase of the AD proceeding. The Panel ordered the DOC to render a negative determination regarding West Fraser's AD cash deposit rate and further ordered DOC to recalculate final margins without reference to zeroing. The Panel also determined that as a matter of law West Fraser's deposits should be refunded. On June 1, the DOC announced its preliminary results for the second Administrative Review for the 2003/04 fiscal year. Final results will be announced in December, at which time the cash deposit rate will change. 2.International Trade Commision The Extraordinary Challenge Panel held hearings in Washington on June 2 and 3. A decision is expected around the end of July. For more information please see the following websites: BC Lumber Trade Council: |
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 Seventy of the top lumber graders from across the BC interior competed in the 41st Annual BC Interior Lumber Grading Championship staged in Prince George on May 28. Balbir Nagra of Abitibi Consolidated, Mackenzie, BC had the top overall mark of 96.4% and was crowned the Champion of Champions for 2005. "The Council of Forest Industries member company graders once again dominated the competition" said Gary Desrosier, COFI's Quality Control Manager, "We had seven of the top ten positions and 13 of the top 20 ". For the second year in a row Mario Masini of Pope & Talbot - Castlegar took home second place money of $600 with a mark of 94% and Marty Pounder of Tembec Industries - Canal Flats was third with a mark of 93.1%. In the "First Year Division", Julia Scott of Dunkley Lumber finished in second place winning $450 with a mark of 81.7%. "We knew we had a very tough act to follow this year after last year's competition in Kelowna", added Desrosier. "To return with seven of the top ten positions this year is an excellent accomplishment. It is the thirteenth consecutive year that the Champion of Champions winner was from a COFI member company. We are extremely proud of our education program and these results are just icing on the cake", said Desrosier. For more information contact: Gary Desrosier, Quality Control Manager at (250) 860-9663 or by e-mail at: desrosier@cofi.org
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