Foothills Research Institute and Hinton Pulp
impress international foresters on field trip
Feature Story posted on July 2, 2008
Alberta 's forest management practices impressed participants at a recent international conference on applied research and forest policy.
The International Model Forest Network Global Forum, a five-day gathering of 170 delegates from 33 countries hosted by Foothills Research Institute (FRI) in Hinton, set aside one day for extensive field trips to the nearby Forest Management Agreement area operated by Hinton Pulp, a subsidiary of West Fraser Mills Ltd.
Participants learned first-hand how Hinton Pulp translates applied research by FRI into leading-edge management practices for riparian protection, grizzly bear and caribou management, timber harvesting, mountain pine beetle control actions and habitat for aquatic species.
“What struck me most is the scale of your forestry,” observed Alvaro Picardo Nieto, an official with Spain 's regional forestry service based in Madrid . “The thought of being in the middle of a million hectares of managed forest is unheard of in Europe .”
Nieto, who last visited western North American while a forestry student in Berkley , California in the 1980s, said he was impressed by changes in forest management practices in the intervening years.
“You've really improved the way you do things,” he said. “You have better landscapes here than in my model forest; we have smaller units, and they look worse. We have to be doing what you're going now.
“For example, you've changed the borders and shapes of clearcuts compared to what I saw 20 years ago. The cutting today is done with much more thought about how it might affect other users.
“I'm also impressed by the care you take with everything you do – protection for pipelines, for example, and silt retention barriers for streams. I would have thought that with so much land, you wouldn't care so much.”
Virginia Outon, general manager of a model forest in northern Argentina , said the field trip provided her with “many learnings” to take back to her country, especially with respect to how social values are incorporated into forest management planning.
“There is a real conscience here about the importance of the forest and how it is used by society – it's stronger than in Argentina ,” she observed. “I was impressed by the concern of people for the forest. Yes, you have more budget and more resources for technology and people, but government here is clearly committed to do the best it can.”
Boris Romanyuk, scientific director of the Pskov Model Forest in northwest Russia , was struck by the “common sense” approach to forest management he saw during the field trip.
“Your technical and planning skills are much more developed than ours, and I'm impressed by the communication and partnerships among stakeholders,” he said. “It was useful to see how flexible your companies are, how they're open to something new. They're looking to the future, not to the short-term.”
Romanyuk said he was surprised that the structure of Alberta Foothills forests are relatively “simple” compared to Russian forests, yet the forest management tools and practices are much more sophisticated and complex than what he has at hand in Russia.
Although Russia and Alberta forests are different, Romanyuk said his country can learn from the forest management practices he observed near Hinton. He was especially interested in landscape-level forest management planning, including processes to identify and protect forest values and ways stakeholders can collaborate to build an effective economic model for forestry operations.
“It was good to see aspects of your forestry on the ground; it clarified a lot of our questions,” said Vladimir Dimitriov, head of the Russian delegation and deputy chief of the department of science and education within Russia 's federal forestry agency. “We have a saying: it is better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.”
Participants said they appreciated the opportunity to exchange perspectives and ideas with fellow delegates, and that the benefit of the field trip was seeing how applied research is put into practice.
“There's always value in learning from a system that's not your own,” said Dave MacLean, president of both the Canadian Model Forest Network and New Brunswick 's Fundy Model Forest .
“Every area has a different emphasis – concepts may be the same, but the processes are always different,” added MacLean, who also serves as Dean of Forestry at the University of New Brunswick.
The International Model Forest Network Global Forum met to discuss common approaches to the sustainable management of forested landscapes and natural resources.
The gathering was hosted by Foothills Research Institute, a 16-year-old partnership of more than 100 stakeholders that develops innovative science and knowledge for integrated management of the forest landscape.
Major core funders of FRI include Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Jasper National Park, West Fraser Mills Ltd. And Foothills Energy Partners.
Sponsors of the international forum included the Alberta government, Natural Resources Canada, the International Development Research Centre and the Alberta Forest Research Institute.
