Thanks to an innovative new course, forestry students at the University of Northern British Columbia are able to learn industry standards and practices directly from working foresters in Northern BC. The course, Forest Operations and Management, represents a unique partnership between UNBC and forest products company Canfor.

“This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of operational practices in harvest planning and implementation,” says UNBC Forestry Professor Kathy Lewis, one of the course coordinators. “For the first time, we have industry professionals from Canfor coming in and teaching the entire class, and not just giving guest lectures.”

During the fourth-year course, students learn about supply chain flow, planning, field operations and permitting, and operations including logging, hauling, road building, manufacturing, and marketing – all from Canfor foresters and associated professionals.

“Canfor jumped at the opportunity and we developed a course that would give students more operational insight than they can get in the classroom,” says Canfor Continuous Improvement Coordinator and UNBC grad (BSc. Natural Resource Management ’03) Tyson von den Steinen.

“The students are walked through the initial stages of planning cut blocks all the way through the operational process right to final delivery and sales to a customer. Canfor’s partnership with UNBC is unique across our company’s vast operations, and reflects that Northern BC is truly a hub in the global forest industry.”

The course includes mandatory field trips to working forestry locations such as cut blocks, and to Canfor sawmills, such as Isle Pierre west of Prince George, where the students can see up close how Northern BC’s forest industry works.

"Learning from Canfor is great,” says UNBC student Nicholas Dormaar. “You get to learn valuable tools from the horse’s mouth. These are people who work in forestry every day so the information is current and applicable.”

Six UNBC students are participating in the course this year, and UNBC and Canfor plan further courses in the years to come.