Representatives from across many sectors of the Forestry Industry gathered in Quesnel for the fourth Future of Forestry Think Tank (FFTT).
The FFTT was held at Quesnel’s CNC campus on Wednesday, May 21, and Thursday, May 22.
Erin Robinson, the Forest Initiatives Manager for the City of Quesnel, says this “grassroots-led, initiative first” conference initially started by gathering different orders of government together to discuss ways to solve issues across Forestry, and find new innovations.
“We wanted to figure out what Quesnel can keep doing well, which is forestry,” says Robinson. “Have it start at the grassroots level and then roll changes up to the region, then up to the province.”
Some projects that started as learning and brainstorming opportunities from the FFTT have started to become provincial initiatives, like the Forest Landscape Plan Process. Quesnel has one of four Landscape Pilot Projects in the province to reshape sustainable frameworks for forestry.
Other projects have revolevd around workshops and training on new tech and innovations for the province. The FFTT has training on new machines and innovative ways to mark and cut down trees using single grip harvesters. A ‘new’ technology in B.C that Robinson says is looking at European forestry practices that have been using the technology for decades.
At this year’s Think Tank, finding new manufacturing goods for bioeconomy and solid wood were key topics of discussion.
“We’re looking at bio digesting and replacing petrochemicals using wood products. There’s anything you can make out of a petrochemical plastic, You can actually make out of wood fiber,” says Robinson. “We have lots of scientists working on this, but we can literally replace all of our single use and Rubbermaid containers, the inside of your car. Anything that’s made of plastic, we can make that outta tree fiber. It’s a service we could look into manufacturing here, but would serve the province.”
From when the FFTT started in 2018, to now, Robinson feels the projects, ideas, and innovations from the FFTT are starting to get traction. Projects the Think Tank thought were years away are getting close to be off the ground. Each session of the bi-annual Think Tank has more organizations join. Robinson says while somethings will take time, innovation and research will continue to push new ideas to help the industry.
“ Innovation and changing the status quo is not a straight path. It’s a winding messy, maybe not even a path. Innovation’s a tricky field, but bringing people in a collaborative space from all different organizations, that’s how we create change. It can’t be people within the traditional sector only, it needs to be from outside of that space as well, or we’re just gonna keep going down the same path.”
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