Chief Forester – Green Jobs Video Series

Lacey

Are you into solving mysteries? Puzzles? This time on PLT Canada’s green jobs, we’re trying to piece together the incredibly complex puzzle of a 10-year forest management plan. PLT Canada’s Green jobs is taking you all over Canada to explore jobs that are unique, fun, and most importantly, make a difference for our environment and in our communities.

Jenny

My name is Jenny Tallman. I’m a registered professional forester working with EACOM Timber out of Timmins and as their Chief forester for Ontario. I went to school at Lakehead University out of Thunder Bay through their forestry program. Going to school at lakehead was wonderful, like it’s in the middle of the boreal forest, we were a group of like 50 kids together for four years out in the bush every week, couldn’t ask for better because we were right in the midst of what we were learning. When I finished school, I had the benefit of getting one of like six positions with the Ministry of natural resources and forestry as a forester and training. My first job was working with the harvest operators on this new technique in which we protected the regeneration that was in place already. When we talked about leaving wildlife trees for woodpeckers or for squirrels, linking the science with what they’re doing can have a direct impact. I think they were interested in that. Overall, in my experience in forestry, these are the people they’re the most passionate about sustainability. We’re there because we have the interest in the natural world. It’s a natural renewable resource, and we want to be part of that group that manages it and has those forests in perpetuity.

Lacey

When I first started working in forestry, I was actually in this area and I heard about Jennifer Tallman. She was working as an operational forester and to me just seemed like this mythical unicorn out in the woods. Since that time, she’s become even more impressive as the first female chief forester in Ontario for EACOM, one of the largest lumber companies in all of Canada.

Jenny

EACOM Timber is an Eastern Canada lumber manufacturer. In Ontario, we have five sawmills and two in northwestern Quebec, we manufacture lumber, we also manage the forest. So we have the privilege in northeastern Ontario of having two sustainable forest licenses. So we have the responsibility to manage the forest from start to finish, from writing a ten-year forest management plan to carrying out the operations to doing all of the renewal, making sure that the forest is coming back as detailed in the forest management plan. So the job that I have today, it’s all about communication, talking to different parties, either on how we’re doing, how to evolve the practice of forestry, or just making sure that we have everything in place, and we’re living up to our commitments in the present.

Lacey

So how is a 10-year forest management plan developed?

Jenny

It all starts with a forest management planning team that is made up of planning foresters, operations people, indigenous people, government, local citizens, biologists, and so forth. It’s a three-year process for us to write a 10 year forest management plan. So there is a lot of time, tons of conversations because it’s a public process. So we have a pile of people that are interested in the plan. So probably first and foremost is the indigenous communities that are actually in or around the forests that we manage. Others that may be interested include the recreationalists, people that like to go camping, hunting, fishing, cottage owners, we have objectives to make sure that we’re maintaining the same type of force that’s there. So it’s not a case of changing one type of tree for another, we maintain that balance across the forest. At the end of the day, when we decide how much wood can be harvested, we’re balancing it off against those other objectives. So if it’s more important to manage for a species at risk and make sure that they have adequate habitat, that could mean the amount of area that we’re going to harvest may go down. And it’s really how do we balance off all those values to make sure we’re addressing those three pillars of sustainability: the ecological, the social, and the economic.

Lacey

I think Jennifer is an amazing role model for up-and-coming foresters. Jennifer’s job is the ultimate balancing act. Plus, she has so many other people around her to oversee, keep on track and keep the gears oiled to make sure that the forest management planning process goes as smoothly as possible. So we’re watching a feller buncher right now.

Jenny

Yeah, so the feller buncher, you see, he makes his trails in, he’s harvesting the wood, laying it down, the processing head will come in afterwards, pick up each tree, measures the length, cut it and make a series of piles of the correct size logs to bring into the mill.

Lacey

So I’m in a processor now, we’re going to see if I can figure out how to run it. Rev it up a little bit. Oh, geez, this is harder than it looks! Operating the processor was really hard. I didn’t really know what I was doing in there. I think for kids that are really into playing video games, operating something like a processor would just be like second nature to them. I don’t have that background, so it definitely wasn’t intuitive for me.

Jenny

There is tons of opportunity in the forestry and conservation sector today. There’s the fact that we have all the baby boomers retiring that just opens up the fields completely, the opportunity for career advancement is better than it ever was because you have those positions that are opening up.

Lacey

Okay, now we’re – (laughs) moving around, picking up a log, running it through the processing head, taking the branches off, cutting to lay, getting it all set up for my friend, the forwarder to come.

Jenny

The coolest thing about my job is you get to go to the bush! Just to be outdoors and be in the fresh air is wonderful. There are so many different areas that you can go into with forestry. So if you want to be out in the bush every day, if you want to be working with equipment, you can be the person that is like marking lines or going and checking for nests and different values and wildlife habitat. If you’d like the computers, the whole idea of geographic information systems or optimization, what’s the best way for us to get wood from where we’ve harvested it into the mills.

Lacey

So behind me we have the forwarder whose job it is to follow around and pick up all of the bunches of logs made by the feller buncher and processed by the processor. And then he brings them to roadside and makes the little piles of logs for the whole truck to pick up. We’re here at EACOM’s mill in Timmins, Ontario and it’s really cool to see all this wood behind us that we’ve been watching being harvested in the forest. Some of this might end up in your new deck or your fence or whatever project you’re working on this year. And it’s also cool to see the pile of chips coming out of the mill and that’s just another illustration that nothing goes to waste. If a tree comes to this yard, the dust, the chips, the bark are all going to get used for something.

Lacey

So we’re on an old forestry road. Can you tell me a little bit about what’s going on here?

Jenny

So we had built the road and had a forest operation further back and now that the harvest is over the area has been renewed. On the way out we have taken out a water crossing to what’s called decommission the road so basically make it impassible to the public. So that’s one of the things that when we’re implementing a forest management plan, there may be a requirement to make it impossible to keep that remoteness and keep it wild back there. It could be for where it’s really good moose habitat, we will pull those crossings out to give them the chance to thrive without hunters coming in.

Lacey

So although you guys are creating lots of opportunities for fishing, hunting, and trapping elsewhere, it’s important to have some areas that are kept wild.

Jenny

Exactly. And it depends on the forest or the area that you’re in. There’s crown land use plans, there’s different prescriptions depending on what area of the forest you’re in and what the bigger picture is, as far as managing it for other uses.

Lacey

That’s a lot of planning.

Jenny

It’s a lot of planning! A lot of detailed planning when we look at every single road.

Lacey

One of the best parts about living in Northern Ontario is being able to enjoy the great outdoors. Eventually the logging road led us to our destination, a little fishing hole that Jennifer likes to spend her spare time at. 

So what kind of fish are we going to catch in here?

Jenny

Probably Pike, we have pike, bass, & perch in this lake, but I would say your best chance in the winter is probably pike.

Lacey

It was really nice to end our time together with some ice fishing because I think that folks like myself and Jennifer that like to spend time out in the woods and on the weekends equally enjoying the forests as we do during the week. It really makes you even more passionate about sustainably managing forests to make sure that future generations have the opportunity to enjoy all the same things that we’re enjoying.

Lacey

So in addition to the forest management plan, you’re also responsible for the sustainable forestry initiative certification or SFI. So what does that mean?

Jenny

So with SFI certification, we hold a couple of different ones. But I would say the main one is our forest management standard. That’s our way to demonstrate to the public and our customers and anybody else that wants to know that we’re managing the forest sustainably. So we follow a set of standards, there is an auditor that comes in every single year to verify that we’re doing what we said we were going to do. And that is just a lot better than as a company us just saying, “Hey, we’re totally managing the force sustainably just like believe us.” So by having an objective third party come in and verify it, that puts more credibility towards it.

Lacey

So that makes a lot of sense, then someone who’s a neutral party coming in to check out what you’re doing, I’m sure you also learn a lot from them and it leads to continual improvement. 

Jenny

Continual improvement is another principle. So we’ll learn that through the audit, if there’s something that we need to improve that they’ve identified, or those auditors who are themselves independent from SFI, they go across the country and across North America to audit. We learn from them from different situations that they see that they’ll give us that information. We hold two other certifications, Fiber Sourcing and Chain of Custody. So while forest management looks at what’s happening in the forest and everything that we do there. Once the wood comes into the mill and goes through the sawmill and comes out as lumber, that chain of custody can assure the person that’s buying that wood that it came from a well managed forest. The fiber sourcing is for any wood that comes into the sawmill from forests we don’t oversee ourselves. So we do checks to make sure the wood is coming in from a sustainable source.

Lacey

Well, that sounds like a lot and a lot of responsibility and challenge but I can tell you’re super passionate about your job.

Jenny

Yeah, I love it! It’s, you know, amazing and working for the forestry sector is the best place to be there like you’re right there where all the action is happening and you can have the greatest effect on making sure that we’re managing sustainably involving the public and doing the best work so.

Lacey

I agree!

It never ceases to amaze me how complicated it is to assemble all the parts of a long-term management plan. Such a balancing act too. When you consider all the time and effort that goes into the development of the plan, coupled with the additional scrutiny of forest certification, Canadians should feel more than confident that we’re being super responsible with the management of our forests. Thanks for joining me and Jennifer Tallman, Chief forester at EACOM as we talked about the development of a 10-year forest management plan. If you would like a work experience in the forest and conservation sector or we’d like to learn about our mentorship, program and Career Resources, visit PLTCanada.org. 

This episode was filmed on Treaty 9 territory, home to the Anishinaabe [A – NISH – Nah – Bay], Mushkegowuk [MUSH – Kay – Go – Wuk], and Algonquin [AL- Gon – Quin] Peoples, as well as the Historic Abitibi [AB – i – TIB – E] Inland Metis [ MAY – Tee] Community.