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Feature Articles
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B.C. Silviculture Employers Turnover Tracked in Special Report
Apr 12, 2012 - An innovative ten-year analysis of silvicultural firms registered with WorkSafeBC shows that among tree planting employers only 76 of the 244 registered at the beginning of the century were still registered in 2012. This declining trend was offset in part by new entrants to the industry bringing the total number of registered firms planting trees in 2012 to 203. Far more turnover was tracked among brushing, weeding and spacing firms with only 53 remaining of the original 364 registered in 2000. In 2012 the brushing and weeding community of employers numbered 203. Seeming to move in the opposite direction, employers registered for firefighting have actually increased over the past ten years, although there appears to have been little steady work to account for this. A conspicuous spike in fire fighting registration occurred in the big fire year of 2003 which may say as much about the level of qualification to get into the industry as it does about the level of work. The study's observations suggest that barriers to entry may be low across the board. New entrants appear to generally get equal access to the silviculture services market with the established firms and new firms as a whole securing work proportional to their share of the employer base. Read More
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Wages and Work Culture Important to Recruiting and Retaining Workers
Mar 30, 2012 - An exit poll taken of silviculture workers last year shows they rate wages almost as important as camp life, working outdoors and treatment by their employers in deciding to remain in or leave the sector. These observations are part of a recently released WSCA report that includes the full set of the 2011internet survey results including workers' qualitative descriptions of what they found the most and least attractive about planting trees, brushing and spacing and fighting wildfires in B.C. Read More
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WSCA Presents Forest Bio-Economy Proposal to Federal MPs
Feb 14, 2012 - The WSCA proposed ways in which the federal government can mitigate the growing wildfire threat and create forestry jobs through encouraging the forest bio-economy in British Columbia. The association made the presentation to MPs at this year's first regional meeting of the BC/Yukon Caucus in Vancouver. Read More
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Licensee and Contractor Fined in Contractor Worker Death
Dec 23, 2011 - A Williams Lake beetle trap tree falling contractor and the licensee that
contracted him both received fines after the death of a faller on the job
this year. WorkSafeBC cited both the contractor and the owner for failing to
properly instruct, train or supervise the worker employed by the contractor.
The contractor received $2,500 fine for his failings; the licensee $75,000
for theirs. The pair of fines reflect the due diligence that licensees need
to exercise around the training and supervision of workers directed by firms
they contract work to. Read More
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Silviculture Report Cites Increasing Planting, Decreasing Workforce
Aug 15, 2011 - The WSCA 2011 Report on the State of the BC Silviculture Industry has identified retaining and recruiting competent workers as a challenge for the sector as it heads into 2012 when planting and stand tending activities will increase. A decade of stagnate or declining bid prices has taken its toll on the silvliculture sector affecting the workforce and the viability of contractors. Forecasts predict up to 40-million more seedlings will be planted next year. The market has to ensure the increase in volume is accompanied by corresponding improvements in margins and wages for the industry according to the report based on two recent contractor summit meetings. Read More
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Statistical Appendix for State of Silviculture Report Available
Aug 14, 2011 - This report includes the public data that was used to compile the WSCA Report on the State of the BC Silviculture Sector August 2011 including planting and sowing figures, safety statistics and Statistics Canada numbers. Read More
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BC Forest Safety Ombudsman Report: Review of Failures Leading to Khaira Situation - July 2011
Jul 27, 2011 - Please see the associated article under "Rumour Mill", and download the pdf document for the Ombudsman's full report. Read More
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WSCA Rumour Mill
Labour Market Partnership Committee Chair Contract Posting — Silviculture Sector Human Resource Strategy Working Group
Apr 11, 2012 - The WSCA is considering applicants for the position of chair of the Labour Market Partnership Program Silviculture Sector Human Resource Strategy Working Group. The working group will direct the three-year $550,000 program to identify and develop strategies to continue recruiting and retaining reliable silviculture sector workers. The offer closes at the end of this month. Read More
Forest Practices Branch introduces revised planting inspection guidelines
Feb 16, 2012 - Air pockets, influence trees, fill plant sampling radii and all the other vital technicalities of the old FS704 planting inspection system have been clarified and revised for 2012. The review resulted from a year-long collaboration between the ministry and the WSCA and should make pay plots more fair and practical. Read More
Auditor General Report criticizes government's timber management
Feb 16, 2012 - British Columbia's Auditor General has found government's management of its timber resource deficient and improvident. John Doyle criticized the ministry for having no clear forest management plan, no method of ensuring that what it is doing is effective, poor reporting, and little to offer to offset timber supply losses into the future. These fundamental failings are similar to issues the WSCA raised in its Green Plan and its recent concerns over the level of not sufficiently restocked (NSR) in the province. Read More
WSCA 2012 Conference Presentations
Feb 14, 2012 - The WSCA 2012 annual conference proceedings include the bio-economy panel, Minister Pat Bell and the BC Jobs strategy, WorkSafeBC rate setting etc. Please click on the links above for the conference proceedings.
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Request for Expressions of Interest: Members for Silviculture Sector Human Resources Strategy Advisory Committee
Jan 9, 2012 - The WSCA is looking for expressions of interest from employers and employees in BC's silviculture industry to sit as members of a proposed silviculture sector human resources strategy advisory committee. The volunteer committee would function as a working group to oversee and direct a program funded by the federal and provincial governments' Labour Market Partnership Program. This proposed program, currently under negotiation with the WSCA, would develop and implement projects to conduct research, develop curricula and educate the forestry industry around human resource (HR) and workforce issues in the BC silviculture sector. Read More
News & Media
Biomass Availability in B.C. - Canadian Biomass Magazine
Apr 20, 2012 - There is a significant volume of biomass on the landscape in British Columbia that needs to be removed in order to improve ecosystem resilience, sustainability and reduce the threat from wildfires facing rural communities. Standing in the way of dramatically increasing extraction are significant market impediments and constraints on access to feedstock. Read More
Are Dead Trees More Combustible Than Live Ones?
Oct 25, 2011 - As Justin Gillis explained at length in an Oct. 1 article, huge tracts of forest are dying across the West and around the world as a result of infestations and other phenomena that many link to climate change. A big question for those who manage forests is how these millions of acres of dead trees will respond to wildfire. Read More
Tree Planting Record Broken In Philippines
Mar 1, 2011 - Speedy tree planting may be the answer to the world's dwindling forest problem. This past Thursday, over 64,000 trees were planted in 15 minutes, breaking the world record for the most trees planted simultaneously. Read More
Silviculture Work: How Far We've Come, So Far Left to Go
Feb 14, 2011 - In the spring of 1985, I made my way to Horsefly, B.C., to embark on my first tree-planting contract and hopefully a new career. With a group of strangers from across the country, we started our five-mile walk in — our gear and supplies following in a tractor. Read More
Inadequate Reforestation Goes From Bad to Worse
Feb 3, 2011 - British Columbia is blessed by nature with a vast, ecologically rich forest estate that also has been a source of sustained economic wealth for more than a century. But today there are troubling signs that the most important of natural assets is facing challenges never before seen.
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