WINTER 2023 Our award-winning newsletter has links to complimentary, balanced educational materials about sustainable natural resource management, including Indigenous voices, scholarships and youth contests with cash prizes. |
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Resource industry news polarized, Métis lawyer says |
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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. | | |
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National Forest Week Winners 2022 |
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| | The winners of FORED's annual National Forest Week Art, Photography and Video Contest — with this year's theme being Canada’s Forests: Solutions for a Changing Climate — have been selected. Various winners are pictured. See all winners with first name/school by clicking button! 👨🎨 | | |
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| | In the K-Grade 4 group, the winners were Nixon from Dallas Elementary (Kamloops, BC) and Chloe from Rosemary Heights Elementary School (Surrey, BC). The Grades 5-8 winner was a collaborative effort of Grades 1-6 students at Lions Gate Montessori (Vancouver, BC) for a cool video on their paper-making project. Anastasiia from Bessborough School (Moncton, NB) received an honourable mention. 🧑🏽🎨
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| | 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 ) 🖌️ | | |
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FORED's Annual Indigenous Bursary at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) |
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Indigenous Youth Bursary Deadline The deadline for FORED BC’s annual bursary for NVIT students is fast approaching. Applications must be submitted to the institute’s registration office by 4:30 p.m. on March 15, 2023. The application form can be found under “FORED BC Bursary” at the NVIT website. The $500 scholarship — which can be used to support any post-secondary related costs such as tuition, books and living expenses — is open to any |
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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. 👀 |
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What career are you dreaming about? Deciding what career and post-secondary paths can be daunting for youths in senior grades. Before young people enroll in post-secondary, we recommend they approach various professionals in the careers they're considering and do some “information interviews” with them. FORED has published an example of one young woman's questions to engineers before she entered that field. These questions could be easily adapted for young people interested in other professions or trades.
Read our new blog and download these helpful questions in the button link. | | |
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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. | | |
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FORED Participates in Canada North Resources Expo FORED is partnering with the Indigenous Resource Network and Young Canadians for Resources to present an exhibit and speaker session at the upcoming Canada North Resources Expo. The event, on May 26-27, 2023, in Prince George, will showcase the resources sectors’ leading companies and innovations, including non-timber use of forests, clean energy and more. Come see us there if you are nearby. 🪵 |
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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. 🌲 |
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Teck gives back to B.C. parks Teck Resources Ltd. has donated $5M to the B.C. Parks Foundation to enhance and grow the provincial parks and protected areas. This partnership between the Vancouver-based mining company and the foundation will “help to preserve and expand green spaces in rural and urban areas, protect important natural parklands and give more people the opportunity to enjoy B.C.’s incredible natural wealth,” said their joint Dec./2022 statement. Teck’s “nature positive goal” is to conserve / rehabilitate at least three hectares of land for every hectare affected by its mining by 2030. 🏞️ |
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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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More trees planted than cut down Three new trees are planted for every tree harvested each year in B.C., according to the Council of Forest Industries. Many naturally grown trees also contribute to this sustainable industry. More than eight billion trees have been planted in B.C. since reforestation programs began in the 1930s. 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 Global demand for crude oil continues to climb Despite increasing use of electric vehicles and other transitions to alternative energy, the world’s daily demand for crude oil 🛢️continues to rise. After falling to 91 million barrels a day in 2020 from 99.7 million in 2019 due to the pandemic, consumption has steadily climbed. In 2022, usage hit an estimated 99.4 million barrels, expected to reach 101.2 million in 2023 and 104.1 million in 2026, says statista.com. Mining sector employs nearly 700,000 people Mineral and metal exports worth $126.6 billion accounted for 22 per cent of Canada’s total domestic exports in 2021, the federal government reported recently. The mining sector ⚒️ employed 692,000 people. Canada is the world’s top producer of potash, second-highest producer of uranium ☢️ and niobium and the third-greatest producer of diamonds💎, platinum and graphite ✏️ — just some of the minerals and metals 🤘 the country exports. |
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Use, then plant a basil pencil for sustainability.
Free pencil that grows basil with minimum donation of $100. | | |
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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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FORED needs your help Like all charities, FORED relies on donations from individuals, organizations or companies who support our important work helping to educate youth about B.C.'s resource industries while preserving the environment, as well as the increasing role of First Nations in sharing B.C.'s natural wealth. A little goes a long way. |
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Established in 1925 by volunteers and B.C. 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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