Features Research & Innovation
Paperclips (January 01, 2008)

Winners announced in National Forestry Competition

MONTREAL, QC — Three Canadian graduate forestry students have discovered new insights that could lead to improvements and cost savings in future forest management efforts across Canada. The discoveries of Sarah Weber of UBC, Ian Curran of the University of Alberta (U of A), and Jeanne Moore of the UNB, have earned the students top spots in a national student research competition organized in Montreal by the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Network.

First-place winner Sarah Weber determined that — in light of the recent historic legal victory for the Tsilhqot’in Nation in BC — legal changes are required to support greater Aboriginal decision-making authority and stewardship roles in forest management.

The discovery of second-place winner Ian Curran may lead to cost-savings for forestry companies. Curran has found that natural seedlings of white spruce — a key species in Canadian forestry — are much more common than estimated in Alberta clearcuts and can lead to very good regeneration in cut areas, particularly where there is aspen leaf litter rather than spruce.

Third-place winner Jeanne Moore, Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick is providing forest managers with information that can save them money and keep them out of trouble in the forest, and enable trees to be grown and harvested more effectively. Moore’s new maps help forest managers avoid situations where the forest is too wet to harvest or build roads through, and where harvesting equipment could harm the ecology of the site.