October 23, 1997 For Immediate Release

University of Northern British Columbia student Nina Suutarinen has won a prestigious award from the BC mining community for research she has been conducting on reclamation practices at the Quintette Coal Mine at Tumbler Ridge.

Nina won the Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarship at a Technical and Research Committee on Mine Reclamation meeting recently in Cranbrook. The award is named in honour of the former Senior Reclamation Inspector for the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources.Her project focused on effective ways to enhance tree growth on coarse refuse areas; in particular, what types of nutrients and what growing techniques would be required to support the growth of merchantable timber as well as suitable wildlife habitat.

"The research has illustrated that there's a definite link between forestry and mining," says Nina, who is the first-ever Reclamation Coordinator for the Industrial Forestry Service in Prince George after helping to create the position two months ago. She expects to be working on reclamation projects throughout northern BC.

Nina is originally from Victoria and is pursuing a degree in Natural Resources Management at UNBC. She is conducting the research with the assistance of Doug Baker, an Environmental Studies professor at UNBC originally from Dawson Creek.