September 2013 Newsletter

Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Convention in Vancouver, September 18 – 19th
Once again the BCCFA will participate in the trade show held every other year in conjunction with the prominent local government event. Executive Director Jennifer Gunter, President Don Brown and Vice President Jack Mc Leman will represent the BCCFA at the UBCM Marketplace at Booth #316.  They want to meet with representatives from BCCFA member communities and ask that you will pass this newsletter on to your local government officials. In addition to networking with representatives from local government, they will have an opportunity to convey BCCFA's primary issues to provincial leaders who also attend the event. These messages include:

• The province’s upcoming consultation on converting volume to area-based tenures and the potential to expand the Community Forest Program within that process.
• The critical role for community forests in reducing wildfire hazard in the wildland urban interface.
• The need for training and technical support for small-scale forest sector development
• Developing a set of indicators to measure the economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits of community forests.

UBCM Resolution for Community Forest Management Zone for Wildfire Hazard Reduction
The City of Cranbrook has submitted the following resolution for consideration by the UBCM delegates (B116):
Be it resolved that the UBCM encourage the province to amend existing forest tenure arrangements to enable the creation of “Community Forest Management Zones for Wildfire Hazard Reduction” in order to accelerate wildfire reduction in forests surrounding BC communities, diversify and increase local forest-based economic and employment opportunities, and support the establishment of a viable bioenergy sector for rural BC communities and the province as a whole.
 
The resolution stems from the work of fire ecologist Bob Gray and is intended to generate discussion on options to reduce wildfire hazard while developing the bioenergy sector. Bob supports the Community Forest Agreement as the tenure of choice for his proposed reforms and the BCCFA board has offered support for the resolution. We believe the concept could support the expansion of the community forest program. Read about the Regional District of East Kootenay support for the initiative more information

DON'T MISS THIS WORKSHOP
Getting Started with Mobile Technology
Due to popular demand, the BCCFA is offering a workshop with Andy Muma and his colleague Lisa Moore on setting up and using mobile technology for office and field work. October 17^th, 2013 9:00am to 5:00pm at Thompson Rivers University, Williams Lake. Fee: $30.00 Space is limited, so please reserve your spot ASAP. Participants should bring their smart phones and tablets. The presenters’ examples will be based on iPads and iPhones, but some of the apps and most of the functionality can be applied to other devices. The afternoon will include some hands on field navigation and data collection. Check out the workshop agenda and find out how to register more information

Reports and Meeting Minutes
Please note that there was not a Board or Joint Working Group meeting in August.
July Executive Director's Report
August Executive Director's Report
June BCCFA Board
July BCCFA Board
June Joint Working Group
July Joint Working Group

BCCFA Extension Program
Planning is underway for the fall extension tour. The tour involves community based meetings which focus on governance and forest management topics of interest to the community. To book a visit contact us

2013 BCCFA Conference Session Summaries
The annual conference report will be available in October.  All conference presentations can be found as a pdf on the BCCFA website.

• Incorporating First Nation’s Perspectives and Cultural Resource Management into Forestry Planning
  In this presentation,  Rick Budhwa, Crossroads Cultural Resource Management and David deWit, Manager of Natural Resources with the Office of the Wet'suwet'en, brought their valuable insight to the opportunities for building relationships between native and non-native communities and to the benefits of integrating First Nation’s perspectives into forest management in a meaningful way. more information
• Tracking Community Forest Benefits – Consideration of the Best Approach
  There is broad agreement that finding a way to measure and track the benefits of community forests will be of great value to the BCCFA, to individual community forests, to the Province of British Columbia, and to the public. What aspects of community forestry should be tracked and how? In this workshop participants discussed and began to identify meaningful, cost effective, and time efficient indicators. Jennifer Gunter, BCCFA Executive Director presented a concept paper. Gary Bull, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry was a resource person for the discussion. more information

New Email for BCCFA President Don Brown Don@copperridgeconsulting.ca

Introducing New Community Forest Managers
The BCCFA would like to send a warm welcome to 4 new community forest managers:
Dave Gill, RPF, Heartland Economics, the management arm of Westbank First Nation's Community Forest.
Craig Pryor, RTF, Valemount Community Forest
Don Nidquidet, RPF, Eniyud Community Forest
Bill Kestell, RPF, Kaslo and District Community Forest

Community Forests in the News - Check out the most recent news postings on the BCCFA website including:

• Cheakamus Community Forest Carbon Project Update
• BCCFA/UBC Summer Intern Project
• A Forest Practices Board report on public involvement in BC forest management which takes good examples from 2 community forests.

WoodSourceBC.com
Have you updated your posting lately? Go to the website now.  more information

Other News

UBCM Clinic - Wildfire, Community Protection & Participation
Wednesday September 18  2013, 7:30 am - 8:15 am  Wildfire prevention and management is a shared responsibility. This clinic will provide local governments with an overview of the tools and resources that are available to undertake community wildfire protection planning and engagement more information

2013 SISCO Fall Field Tour, September 17-18 2013  Kamloops
Managing Complex Stands for Multiple Uses – SISCO is once again offering an interesting and dynamic session that will focus on the pros and cons of single and multi-cohort management in the IDF. more information  registration form

Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology
Fall courses for biologists: Stats Refresher & R Software  more information

Invitation from the Chief Forester to attend the Fostering Resilient Forests and Ecosystems workshop in your area. Read the invite Go straight to the website

August Update from Minister Thompson more information

Forest Practices Board Annual Report more information

Wood Waste 2 Rural Heat News September 2013  Includes information on a new tool available for rural municipalities to assess the viability of turning wildfire abatement wood into a valuable fuel. more information

Federation of BC Woodlot Associations AGM September 19-22 2013 Campbell River, BC  more information