After three decades, the manager of the UBC Alex Fraser Research Forest will be retiring.
“Well I’ve been working at UBC for 31 years as the manager here in Williams Lake and when i hired on somehow I fell into a pool where they offer special early retirement and so I’ve chosen to exercise the opportunity,” says Ken Day.
“The most rewarding aspect of my work has been working on a relatively small piece of forest land for 30 years and be able to watch things over time.”
Day adds that the opportunity of working with the Williams Lake Indian Band and the City of Williams Lake to create and standup the Williams Lake Community Forest has been a tremendous experience.
He says the opportunity to pass that on to new managers-registered professional forester Hugh Flinton and registered forest technician Kent Watson of C&P Management Group Inc. is really gratifying.
As for the future Day says he would like to get his work week down to about to 25 hours a week and that he will continue doing some consulting work that will hopefully take him travelling.
Day’s last day as manager at the UBC Alex Fraser Research Forest  will be on February 16, 2018 with Stephanie Ewen as the incoming manager.
“I’m going to have a hard time driving by the road without looking in to see what’s going on,” he says.
“I will be maintaining professional and friendly contacts with the staff here. I will be interested in seeing how things go forward, and I hope that we continue to work together in a variety of ways.”
A contractor is currently working in the Gavin Lake area to harvest about 30,000 cubic meters of damaged timber to take to the mill this year. Over 1,000 hectares of the research forest at Gavin Lake was burned by wildfires in 2017.