Getting balanced, factual information about natural resource development is now difficult — if not impossible — for young people in B.C. due to anti-industry bias on social media and mainstream press, says a prominent Indigenous lawyer.
 

“I don’t even know if they can,” said Barbara Collins, a partner in the Vancouver office of McMillan LLP, who specializes in corporate finance and securities law, often linked to resource industries. “I’m a bit cynical about this.”
 

Collins, who is Métis, said “getting the message out” about the importance of resources is tough. “The media is so polarized. You don’t want to hear what anyone else has to say and it’s even more siloed now,” she said. “If you don’t want to have a new iPhone...or a new house then we should stop mining, you know, we should stop cutting down forests. We need those resources to live. People don’t understand that.”

Hear how she once failed high school math — only to find her career calling as a successful finance lawyer.

Eliza of Robert Thirsk High School (Calgary, AB) won the Grade 9-12 category. Sara, Stephenville High School (Kippens, NL) and Ava (Cumberland, BC) received honourable mentions. 👩🏿‍🎨
 

Each winner received $150. We thank everyone for their entries. (Winning art by Eliza of Robert Thirsk High School in Calgary is shown ) 🖌️

NVIT student of self-declared Indigenous ancestry. Winners are selected by NVIT. Students must declare a financial need, obtain high overall grades and write a short paragraph on how traditional ecological knowledge may be or has been applied to environmental resources management in their territory, community or band decision-making.
 

FORED staff or volunteers proudly attend the annual award ceremony. 📚 Watch bursary winners' video by clicking the photo. 👀

FORED Gives a Hoot.

Some of our volunteers paid a visit and donated to the OWL (Orphaned Wildlife) Rehabilitation Society facility in Delta last November where they met various feathered friends, including Winston Churchowl (left).

The striking male Great Grey Owl has lived there since May 2015 after being found in Smithers with a broken left wing. More info on OWL raptor ambassadors can be found here. 🦉 Check out our classroom activity by clicking the green button.

B.C. old-growth logging falls to record low

Logging of B.C. old-growth forests fell to the lowest level on record in 2021. 🌲
 

A Forests Ministry news release estimated 38,300 hectares (ha) were logged compared to 65,500 ha in 2015 — a 42-per-cent decline. The area logged last year was just 0.3 per cent of the estimated 11.1 million ha of old growth in B.C. 🌲 Note: one hectare is about the size of 2.5 football fields.
 

The provincial government’s 2020 Old-Growth Strategic Review drove the logging reductions. Environmental groups have accused the provincial government of not being transparent about where old-growth logging is allowed or deferred. The logging industry, which includes Indigenous groups, say these deferrals mean thousands of jobs will be lost and many sawmills will shutter. 🌲

Too many young people are idle

Some 12 per cent of Canadian youth are not involved in education, employment or training, according to the Coalition for a Better Future, a group of Canadian leaders and organizations working "to develop a new economic and social vision" for Canada. 🦥 The coalition wants the country to achieve the lower youth idleness rate of six per cent found in peer countries such as Germany and Japan. Even volunteering would get young people off devices and into potential career opportunities.
 

A former Environment and Climate Change Canada Accounting Manager recently spoke to FORED BC about the value of volunteering.🤸

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