Chair, Resilient Ecosystems Committee, Woodlots BC
A graduate of UNBC, Melissa has spent much of her career working north of Quesnel for a small number of consulting companies. Forever the consultant, she currently consults to Woodlots BC as the Northern Woodlot Representative. In that role she chairs a committee of woodlot licensees to role out a program providing woodlot licensees with information on how to maintain and recruit old forest attributes within harvested areas.
The Resilient Ecosystems project began as a committee of woodlot licensees to discuss a New Future for Old Forests Summary Report as well as other Old Growth Mandates established throughout the province. The primary focus is to provide guidance to licensees on how to navigate Old Forest requirements while increasing sustainable Old Forest attributes within their tenure area.
This guidance is in the form of a literature review, website resources, and articles in Woodlots BC publications. The Woodlots BC website includes a page dedicated to sharing this information (Woodlotsbc.ca\RE). A pamphlet was developed by the committee with printing funded through SIP discussing Old Forest Attributes and management tools.
Numerous ideas and current silviculture development pathways were discussed and have resulted in some interesting examples and concepts being tested on woodlots across the province.