The 2009 AGM of the NBFTA was held in Moncton on April 2. The link below is to a pdf document of the minutes of the meeting.
All posts by Todd
Right to Practice on the Radar
At the 2009 NBFTA AGM, the ARPFNB announced that its membership has decided in favor of drafting ‘Right-to-Practice’ Legislation for forest practitioners in the Province of New Brunswick. They have hired legal counsel to help them in drafting legislation that will eventually be presented to the people of New Brunswick through a Private Members Bill in the New Brunswick Legislature.
At the NBFTA AGM we were invited to take part in this process and reserved decision until we could have a formal meeting to discuss this. That meeting took place today, April 22, 2009, and the Executive has decided that we need to be included in this process in order to have our voice at the table.
The current position of the NBFTA, with respect to this legislation, is that we neither support or reject Right to Practice Legislation. That is something that the general membership will decide in the future. Two members of the Executive will be involved in the process, representing the best interests on the Association.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks
Todd MacPherson, CFT
President NBFTA
CFE Opportunity: SFI 101 Webinar – April 24 2009
Following is an announcement for an SFI Webinar April 24 2009 (this coming Friday). Instructions to join in are included in the announcement.
The webinar will cover the following topics and will provide a comprehensive update of SFI Program progress:
* Provide an overview of forest certification
* Provide an overview of the SFI® program including the draft revised SFI Standard
* Present and discuss SFI labels and Claims
* Summarize the key marketing initiatives of SFI in North America, including consumer & customer research to date
* Present technical and marketing resources to support your company and certification
* Q&A session
This webinar is free of charge.
Feel free to forward this notice to anyone who may be interested.
SFI Webinar Series
Sustainable Forestry Initiative Masthead
March 17, 2009
Sustainable Forestry Initiative® 101 Webinar
Friday, April 24, 2009
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative(SFI) program represents a growing community of foresters, landowners, wood product and paper manufacturers, distributors and conservation organizations, among others, who are committed to improving forest practices globally. Over the past few months, we have had a growing interest among our program participants and certified companies for SFI Inc. to host a webinar to:
* Provide an overview of forest certification
* Provide an overview of the SFI® program including the draft revised SFI Standard
* Present and discuss SFI labels and Claims
* Summarize the key marketing initiatives of SFI in North America, including consumer & customer research to date
* Present technical and marketing resources to support your company and certification
* Q&A session
SFI Inc. President and CEO Kathy Abusow will lead this webinar and Q&A period on the basics of SFI. Attending this live, online session will enable participants to:
* explain the value of SFI to their customer and
* leverage the SFI brand into marketing plans.
The SFI 101 session – the first in a series of webinars coming in 2009. We invite you to please forward this invitation to all relevant staff, sales teams and training coordinators in your organization, and RSVP individually to lisa.fox@sfiprogram.org by April 10th, 2009. The webinar access information is found below.
Future topics in SFI Inc.’s 2009 webinar series will include Green Building, labels & claims, and the revised SFI Standard, among others. Please send suggestions for future webinar topics to karen.brandt@sfiprogram.org.
Webinar Access Details:
Topic: SFI 101
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009
Time: 1:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -04:00, New York)
Meeting number: 598 974 417
Meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
Web conference link:
Please click the link below to see more information, or to join the meeting.
https://intercall.webex.com/intercall/j.php?ED=114359752&UID=0
Audio conference information: Provide your phone number when you join the meeting to receive a call back. Alternatively, you can call:
Call-in toll-free number: 1-866-5536252
Call-in number: 1-650-2514440
Conference Code: 8556904433
We look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Karen Brandt
Vice-President, Market Affairs
SFI Inc.
Contact Info and RSVP to:
Lisa Fox
Coordinator, Marketing
SFI Inc.
Lisa.Fox@sfiprogram.org
NBFTA Congratulates Brandon Hicks
Congratulations to Brandon Hicks, winner of the NBFTA Scholarship for 1st Year MCFT Students. The 18-year-old Sackville, NB resident is also the 2010 Graduating Class President.
This award is presented annually to 1st Year MCFT students who are residents of New Brunswick. To learn more about the criteria for this award please click here.
Again, congratulations to Brandon.
Site Interruption – All systems back to normal.
I checked this site today and noticed that it was not functioning properly. Somehow the underlying software corrupted. I installed the newest version of it and now all is working fine.
Flood Photos
I took a few photos of the flood in Fredericton. Here is a link to view them online.
PRESS RELEASE: New Budget Eliminates Silviculture Program for Woodlot Owners
PRESS RELEASE – March 18, 2008
New Budget Eliminates Silviculture Program for Woodlot Owners
The government made two budget announcements regarding the provincial private woodlot silviculture program which in combination essentially eliminate this program. The first part of the announcement indicated that the budget would be cut in half from $8 million to $4 million. The second part of the announcement however, in practice will mean woodlot owners will not be able to access any of the reduced budget.
The second part of the announcement stipulates the cost sharing arrangement between the province and woodlot owners. Historically the cost of silviculture treatments was split 80-20 between the province and the woodlot owner. The new format will see this cost sharing change to a 50-50 split.
“How can government expect woodlot owners that cannot sell their forest products to start contributing more money to silviculture, “questioned New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners President Andrew Clark. “The appropriate move would have been to add money to the budget and improve the cost sharing to 90-10 using Federal trust fund money that was announced recently”, added Clark.
“We are mystified by this action when we believed that Premier Graham was committed to stable long-term silviculture funding”, said Clark. “The silviculture budget has not been this low since 1997 when only 6,800 hectares were treated. Last year with $8 million over 12,000 hectares were treated. This directly contributes to the sustainability and future of the forest industry in New Brunswick and creates much needed employment in rural communities,” stated Clark.
“What message about the future of the forest industry and the future of woodlot owners does this give? Is the government saying they have completely given up on the forest industry?” asked Clark.”I would like the Premier to consider this an urgent request for a meeting to discuss how woodlot owners fit in a self-sufficient New Brunswick. It is a question that needs answering.”
For more information contact: Andrew Clark 375-4708 or Troy Lifford 459-2990. Also contact Marketing Board managers at the following:
Carleton-Victoria: Tim Fox – 392-5584
Madawaska: Claude Pelletier – 739-9585
North Shore: Alain Landry – 548-8958
Northumberland: Kevin Forgrave – 622-7733
South East New Brunswick: Marcel Maillet – 532-1150
Southern New Brunswick: Pam Folkins – 433-9860
York Sunbury Charlotte: David Palmer – 444-6655
Troy Lifford BBA, BScF
Assistant Manager
New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners
259 Brunswick St., Suite 304
Fredericton, N.B.
E3B 1G8
Phone 506-459-2990 Fax 506-459-3515
Email: nbfwo@nbnet.nb.ca
Web: http://www.nbwoodlotowners.ca
Testing Supervisor, STO R18, Full-time, $44,985.78 – $51,162.94
Sent in by Kim Mann from British Columbia:
Ministry of Forests and Range, The Tree Seed Centre (TSC), Surrey is responsible for registering, processing, testing, storing and distributing all forest tree seed to meet an annual 270 million plus Crown land seedling production program. This unique provincial centre is owned and operated by the Ministry of Forests and Range.
As the Testing Supervisor, you’ll be responsible for the very dynamic and fast-paced TSC testing business area. In this role, you’ll organize, supervise and conduct seed, cone, seedlot and request assessments and testing throughout the centre’s business steps, activities and decision points including seed/cone processing, registration, interim and long-term storage, production and distribution. Key responsibilities include ensuring that multiple and concurrent sampling, testing, inspection, analyses and reporting activities are completed in accordance with International rules, ministry policy and TSC standards. You’ll also ensure effective data and information management, resolve unusual or complex problems and provide technical expertise to centre staff, clients, contractors and students.
Additionally, you will supervise a team of regular staff, and prioritize daily, weekly and longer-term work assignments, set standards, assign resources, resolve problems and recommend improvements and be responsible for the laboratory infrastructure including supplies and equipment monitoring and safety.
To qualify for this important role, you bring a technical diploma or have graduated university in forestry, agriculture, horticulture or other related field, and you have 4+ years experience in a resource-related (i.e. forestry, water or agriculture) quality control, testing, processing and/or research environment. Alternatively, you have the equivalent combination of education and experience, such as 6 years related testing, processing or research environment experience and relevant on-the-job training courses. You also bring demonstrated experience working in a production environment with simultaneous work activities and quality control responsibilities and a minimum of 2 years experience supervising technical staff in a unionized environment.
For more information about the position’s responsibilities, qualifications/experience required, and how to apply, please go to http://employment.gov.bc.ca/index.php?view_posting=039729
Forestry In The News
I spend quite a bit of time reading about local forestry issues, so thought it would be a good idea to create a new feature on the site called ‘Forestry In The News’.
The way it works is random local news links appear at the top of the page each time it is loaded. You will have the choice of whether to click the link. Further, if you do not want the newswire to appear at the top, click the 
located in the upper-right corner of the page. This will close the feed down.
I have purposely set this feature up in such a way so that there will be no commentary allowed on the articles. If you want to comment then follow the link to the source of the article and comment there.
Forest GIS Analyst Wanted
The Government of Canada is looking for a Forest GIS Analyst for the Fredericton Area:
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Forest GIS Analyst
Department Name: Department of Natural Resources
Location: Fredericton, NB
Classification: PC – 01
Salary: $29,780 to $59,369
Closing Date: December 10, 2007 – 23:59, Pacific Time
Reference Number: RSN07J-008815-000175
Selection Process Number: 07-RSN-EA-099-122860-070
Employment Tenure: Sunset Term* – Full Time until March 31, 2010.
A pool of qualified candidates may be established and may be used to staff similar term and/or permanent positions.
Vacancies: 1
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If you are interested you must apply online. Pass it on. Closing date is December 10, 2007.