Our speaker at the General meeting on April 14 was Hans deVisser. Hans has worked in the forest industry in BC for more that 40 years both with the BC Ministry of Forests and principally with the private sector. Hans is currently the CEO of Coastland Wood Industries in Nanaimo. Coastal employs 300 people and consumes 65 truckloads of second growth Douglas Fir logs each day and operates on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis. Coastland manufactures veneer for plywood and various engineered wood products.
Hans’s presentation consisted of a series of excellent slides which have been uploaded below for your viewing. The slides are largely self- explanatory and help to put forestry operations in BC into proper perspective. (note: the slide numbers can be seen faintly – you may need to click the back arrow a few times to start with the title slide “Where is the Truth”.)
One particular slide, which is illustrated below, shows the devastation that the Mountain Pine Beetle caused in the BC Interior. Interestingly, the Mountain Pine beetle was an early warning for climate change. Before the 1990’s, the typically cold winters with a series of minus 40 degree consecutive days in the region would wipe out the damaging pests.
Please sit back and enjoy the informative presentation about a very important component of our Province.
Al MacDonald
