Newsletter

Letter from the Publisher
Debbie Bazett
Forest Educator
Council of Forest Industries (Southern Operations)

Our online biannual forest education newsletter, the Learn Forestry News, was created in January 2005 for the Learn Forestry website. Over the past five years, it has contained contributions from forest educators, post-secondary forestry students, career prep teachers, the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations, the Festival of Forestry, Blue Lake Forest Education Society, Canadian Women in Timber, NAIT, BCIT, UBC and many other individuals, schools and associations. The ongoing support of these groups and individuals over those years has been very much appreciated. However, the thirteenth issue of the Learn Forestry News will likely be the last, at least for the time being. With funding having already depleted for the forest educators previously employed throughout the Southern Interior, it has also come to an end for COFI Southern Operations Forest Education, bringing with it the loss of my position, after eight years working to help build and support the Southern Interior forest educator network.

It has been a great experience meeting and working with so many committed individuals during my time at COFI, from teachers, post-secondary recruiters, forestry professors and forest educators, all striving to deliver excellence in their programs, to forest professionals volunteering their time and expertise to assist with speaker requests, camps and field tours, to members of organizations such as the Interior Logging Association, the Canadian Women in Timber, the Festival of Forestry and other Forest Education Societies across Canada and the US. Our sincere appreciation goes out to all who have shared and supported forest education in the Southern Interior over the past years. Hopefully, as the economy and the forest industry recover, local forest educators will once again be hired to create a program of events, workshops, resource distribution, field tours, career promotion and more, bringing awareness and understanding about our forests and the forest industry to students, teachers and communities in the Southern Interior.

Many thanks once again to all those who have contributed to the Learn Forestry News over the past five years- your ongoing support in providing news and information to our readers about your events and programs has been welcomed and appreciated!!

Forest educators from Southern Interior zones gather in 2007
for a fall resource meeting at the Interior Logging Association board office.

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