FALL 2023 Landscapes, our award-winning newsletter has links to complimentary, balanced educational activities on sustainable natural resource management, including Indigenous voices, bursaries & youth contests with 💰 prizes. |
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Indigenous female busts stereotypes |
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By James Snell, Canadian Energy Centre It’s mid-2020 and there’s a woman with blue and purple hair operating an excavator on a steep slope near Kitimat. With care, Kristy Robinson moves tonnes of rock and dirt — clearing a path for a section of the $14.5-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline, which begins near Dawson Creek and ends in Kitimat. 👷♀️ “I absolutely love my job,” says the heavy equipment operator. “It’s fun seeing the reaction on people’s faces when they see me in the machine and I’m not a big, burly dude.” Robinson, who is Mi’kmaq, is a long way from her start in 2005 as a heavy equipment operator student at the College of the North Atlantic in Newfoundland. My family wants me home,” she says. “But it’s hard to get a job as a female equipment operator back home and there is limited work.” As the pipeline nears completion, Robinson has pivoted to reclamation work on another section of the project near Burns Lake. The entire pipeline is expected to be completed by the end of the year. | | |
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Former Canfor CEO honoured post-humously |
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The FORED BC board of directors and members have honoured longtime member, former board chair and donor Peter Bentley, the late-CEO of B.C. forestry giant Canfor, with a posthumous honourary membership at its AGM. Bentley — an Order of Canada and Order of B.C. recipient, volunteered for FORED since May 1956. A commemorative letter sent to Bentley’s son, Michael, president of SierraSil Health Inc., noted his dad was “a true believer in the need for balanced education about forestry, integrating environmental, social and economic values.” Peter gave generously of his time and funds to many BC organizations, including VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the Business Council of Canada and the University of Northern BC, where he served at one point as chancellor. Bentley died Sept. 6, 2021, aged 91. | | |
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NVIT Indigenous bursary winner |
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Patience Muldoe is this year's winner of the FORED BC's traditional knowledge bursary at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT). The Gitxsan student is enrolled in the Merritt-based NVIT's Environmental Resources Technology program. Her future plans include a freshwater sciences degree from UBC.🚰 "Being an Indigenous person coming from a small reserve, I want to break cycles and be a role model for younger generations," she says. Congratulations, Patience! We wish you every success in your chosen career. May your achievements inspire others. 👩🎓 Learn more about Patience on our Instagram channel. |
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FORED educational programs at BC's Resources Expo |
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Thousands of participants at Canada North Resources Expo spoke to FORED volunteers during the May event in Prince George. The expo showcases the resources sectors’ leading companies and innovations, including non-timber use of forests, 🌲🌲 clean energy 🌄 and Indigenous-owned endeavors. 🪵 Partnering with the Indigenous Resource Network & Young Canadians for Resources, FORED shared results of our national youth poll, via video below. ⬇️ | | |
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Kids' art contest with cash prizes! |
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Are you aged 5-18 and interested in winning some cash for doing what you love? The best original artwork, photos and videos from youth artists 👩🎨 can be submitted to celebrate the importance of our forests, from supporting plants and animals to the provision of cancer drugs! The 2023 theme is: Canada’s Forests — Supporting Biological Diversity. 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 are 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 Hurry, the deadline is Nov. 3, 2023. ⏰ |
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Do we still need oil & gas? FORED BC launched a new classroom activity for youths aged 10-13
exploring whether we still need petrochemicals. 🛢️ Youths will reflect on products made from natural resources and identify any substitutes that exist. They may be surprised to learn how many oil and gas products we all rely on for daily life, from health care 💊 to transportation 🚴 and recreation ⛷️.
Did you know that kayaks and other watercraft are made from oil and gas products? 🛶 | | |
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Indigenous voices podcast A FORED partner, the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN), has launched a new podcast, Indigenous Voices in Resource Development. Indigenous workers in resource development share their stories in the podcast. The debut story focuses on La Ronge, Sask., resident Taryn Roske, the first Indigenous woman in Canada to work as a jet boring system (JBS) operator. (Jet boring uses high-pressure water to carve out cavities in orebodies ⛏️ so that the resulting slurry can be sent to the surface through pipes.) Hear more from Taryn, who works at Cameco's Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Sask., here. |
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Rising concern about health of B.C. resource industries Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Loerne Doerkson is concerned that BC's resource industries are faltering, particularly in the central interior region. He said the BC government's 2022/23 fiscal year reports "$1.8 billion in forestry revenues," in an op-ed in the 100 Mile Free Press in May. 🌳🌲 "However, their forecast for revenue from the industry in the 2023/24 year is only $846 million. This means that government is predicting that B.C. is going to bring in a billion dollars less in forestry revenue this year than it did the year previous."💰 BC professional forester David Elstone is also worried. Writing in the Oct. 23 Business Examiner, he noted that the number of sawmills in BC has fallen to 64 today from 111 in 2005 — a 42-per-cent decline. Only 47 sawmills are forecasted to remain in operation in the province by 2035, Elstone said.🪵
Aside from our reliance on wood for building desperately needed homes, revenues the government receives from forestry fund hospitals/health care, education, social services and critical infrastructure. |
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B.C. gas exports expected to grow While natural gas consumption is beginning to decline around the world with the advance of green energy, demand in Asia — particularly in China — means B.C. gas exports are expected to grow, the International Energy Agency says in a new report. 🔥🔥🔥 “While markets moved towards a gradual rebalancing in the first three quarters ... of 2023, structurally higher gas prices pave the way for a slower and more uncertain demand trajectory, with growth almost entirely concentrated in Asia and the gas-rich markets of Africa and the Middle East,” the IEA’s gas market report predicts, says a report in Business in Vancouver. Natural gas consumption in Canada increased by about two per cent in the first three quarters of 2023. |
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Alarmist headlines don't help climate action, says former BC Green Party leader |
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Former B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, an earth and ocean sciences professor at the University of Victoria, is cautioning people to be careful about alarmist climate news, especially sensational headlines. Writing in The Conversation, the former Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA said inaccurate, doom-and-gloom newswriting — such as a New York Post article during the summer suggesting that the Gulf Stream 🌊 could collapse, creating “global chaos” — creates anxiety, leading people to believe humanity is doomed and that there is nothing we can do about climate change.🌡️🌎 “This latest alarmist rhetoric provides a textbook example of how not to communicate climate science,” Weaver wrote. “These headlines do nothing to raise public awareness, let alone influence public policy to support climate solutions." 🥵
BC's Former Premier John Horgan tells logging protestors to use Google Former NDP premier John Horgan raised similar concerns about anti-logging protests that block roads not to save forests but to "generate conflict videos that spread quickly and drive online fundraising," he told the Victoria News. That’s not how you affect change in a civil society, Horgan said. "I’m profoundly disappointed that this small group of people are so self-absorbed and think so highly of their opinions and their so-called rights that they feel it’s OK to intrude in the rights of other British Columbians." He noted that activists ignored his government's logging deferral of 1.7 million hectares of old growth and that if they used "the Google on their GoFundMe pages they’d find out that a lot of work is being done.”
Viral climate video bears more scrutiny
In the same vein, FORED BC recalls the famous “emaciated polar bear" 🐻❄️ stories blaming climate change that turned out to be false, after going viral. The bear was clearly sick (possibly cancer) yet no calls to help the injured animal were placed. Misinformation contributes to the climate anxiety youths experience which both parents and educators find challenging. The BC government recently produced a guide with a link to this mental health resource that may help in homes and classrooms.
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FORED needs your help Like all charities, FORED relies on donations from government, individuals, foundations or companies who support our important work helping to educate youth about BC's resource industries while preserving the environment, as well as the increasing role of First Nations in sharing BC's natural wealth.
A little goes a long way.
Basil pencils provided
for minimum $100 donations. | | |
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✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more ideas! Please like/comment under videos. 👀
✍️ We welcome YOUR IDEAS for sharing in a future newsletter or a video. |
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Established in 1925 by volunteers and BC foresters in government, industry and NGOs to teach forest fire prevention, FORED BC is an independent, non-partisan charity that offers educational tools about the environmental, cultural and economic values of our forests and other natural resources, including the important relationship of Indigenous peoples to the lands and waters. |
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