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Editorial
"We want to help you maintain a good awareness of who we are, what we do, who we do it for, and where..."
From our perspective, our primary goal is to retain your "top of mind"
awareness of Timberline. We feel the better you know us, the better we
will be able to do business with one another, whether you are a client,
a partner, or
Please let us know what you think of our newsletter. Send your comments to me (hdw@timberline.ca) or our Editor (Makenzie Leine, lml@timberline.ca). See you next issue. Doug Walker, RPF
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Issue New Efficiencies to Pass on to Our Customers Long-term client relationship Provides Alberta Pacific with Dependable Services Better Results at Lower Costs with Integration Smooth Transition at Timberline
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Welcome
to the first issue of Timber Lines. This is a new venture for Timberline,
designed to keep our friends informed about news at Timberline. Each issue
we will talk about some current projects, new developments in technology
and processes, innovative business relationships, and other general information
about Timberline we hope you will find interesting and useful. From time
to time we will profile individual staff and clients. We want to help you
maintain a good awareness of who we are, what we do, who we do it for,
and where. There are lots of exciting things going on these days at Timberline,
with new hires, new offices, management transition, retirements, new clients,
and joint ventures. We'll try to keep each offering brief enough that you
can read the entire issue in about 10-15 minutes, but still provide enough
detailed content to make it worthwhile. We'll also provide you with contacts
for more information.
New Efficiencies to Pass on to Our Customers
"New additions to resource analysis have allowed us more flexibility in addressing the ever-growing list of complex analyses brought forward by clients…"
Jay Greenfield - resource analyst for
Prince George.
Staying
competitive and successful requires resource analysis to be leading edge
at all times. As resource analysts, we are always searching for new efficiencies
and technologies that will keep us in leaders in the industry.
Over the past six months we have increased the efficiency of the Resource Analysis department by making two significant changes, increasing our computing power (adding a dual processor) and by changing our Linear Solver. Some programs can run for days on the same problem making the one processor setup frustrating and inefficient.
The switch to a new linear solver for optimization was not taken lightly. We considered several solvers and operating systems. Run times went from several hours to an hour and less. It was now possible to test scenarios faster and solve more complex problems then ever before. For thousands of dollars less than a new comparable workstation we were able to meet our current needs solving linear problems. The new addition to the department has allowed us more flexibility in addressing the ever-growing list of complex analyses brought forward by clients. Resource analysis is dependent on the fact that the forest is not a static entity and is forever changing. If we cannot efficiently solve clients' problems, chances are they will find someone who can.
The change was made by first accepting the need for change then wisely testing the options available. To blindly jump into unknown water is risky but it's important to be decisive when making changes and upgrading. Time waits for no one; therefore, if you’re not ready you will be playing catch-up to a new market leader.
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Long
Term Client Relationship Provides Alberta Pacific with Dependable Services
“Solutions to challenges are always part of the service” Tim Juhlin and Mike Pozniak outside of
Alberta Pacific's administration building.  Throughout the years, Timberline has provided many services to Alberta Pacific dealing with almost every aspect of a woodlands operation from Management on down. “Solutions to challenges are always part of the service” (George Dribnenki). Some areas include: Having a long-term consultant has proven beneficial to both client and contractor in all levels of the job. Better Results at Lower Costs with Integration "...the result is not only a higher quality product but also increased utility in required and value added services and a more efficient way of managing your forest." A common reaction to difficult economic times is to identify and implement frugal planning strategies. This does not mean sacrificing quality, or even quantity, but managing your forestry applications such that utilizing them in more places than one, or in conjunction with other information, can maximize their utility. Integrating services results in efficiencies that address total cost and project schedule. |
How does integration improve your business? It can increase the efficiency of project management by reducing your overhead burden from administration of more than one contractor. Value added services could assist in making required strategic planning more effective, especially with increasing forest practice regulations. Time spent accessing and transferring data could be reduced when it is all in the same location and in compatible formats. A more open client-consultant relationship will, inevitably, reduce the need for client time and dollars spent on monitoring and controls. Finally, your business's success will increase with quality and meaningful products.
click for larger image ...
We are currently providing integrated approaches that are enabling
clients to address their business as a complete picture and improve management
planning. Evaluating harvest levels and other resource objectives
can be achieved with a full spatial analysis, which includes adjacency
requirements, mapping of riparian zones, cutblocks and wildlife tree patches.
Inventories of wildlife habitat, stream classification, ecosystem corridors,
ecological classification, regeneration productivity and recreation and
visual landscape can be integrated into our timber supply analysis tools.
This may address concerns about gaps that contribute to uncertainty in
the planning and management process. This integration with timber
supply analysis tools enabled modelling to meet strict management guidelines
for several of our clients in British Columbia. GIS and spatial strategic
planning have been combined to address biodiversity concerns with reserve
areas and amalgamating cutblocks for reduced fragmentation, whilst improving
the timber supply outlook. Vegetation and ecological inventory
can be integrated for timber supply analysis. Those productivity
estimates can be combined with yield curves developed from PSP data to
produce optimum silviculture regimes. Yield curves, timber supply
analysis and ecological land classification can be integrated for an ecologically
based timber supply analysis. Ecological information provides an
additional level of resolution and estimate of standing timber and site
potential than the use of forest cover information alone. As well,
the ecological classification provides useful information for habitat and
biodiversity modeling and can be used as a planning tool for silvicultural
prescriptions.
There are many possibilities and combinations for integration and the result is not only a higher quality product but also increased utility in required and value added services and a more efficient way of managing your forest.
Smooth Transition at Timberline
"It is good news for Timberline and our forestry clients, in that it represents a measured, well-planned change in ownership ..."
A smooth and orderly management transition is under way at Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants, one of Canada's largest full-service forestry consulting firms. Doug Walker of Edmonton has been named Chief Operating Officer. Replacing Walker as Alberta Regional Manager is Geoff Clarke, a University of New Brunswick forestry grad who has been with Timberline since 1998. Harold Hunt (Corporate Manager Information Technology) and Erik Wang (Regional Manager Southern B.C.) are the other newer members of Timberline's Executive Committee. Long-serving Executive Committee members Mark Godfrey (President), Dave Jamieson (Vice-President), and John Fuller (Regional Manager Northern B.C.) will continue in their present roles until July 2003.
Mark Godfrey and Dave Jamieson were newly graduated from the University of British Columbia's forestry program when they started Timberline in 1971. Along with partner John Fuller, they are now in the process of transferring ownership and management to Timberline employees, aiming for retirement after a five-year transition period ending in 2006.
One of Timberline's early timber
cruising crews including
current Timberline owners Mark
Godfrey (third from left)
and John Cosco (second from right).
Walker
will work closely with President Mark Godfrey. Some of Timberline's corporate
functions were transferred to Edmonton as part of Walker's appointment,
with the balance remaining in the Vancouver Head Office. These changes
are the currently visible part of a gradual transition process that started
in 1991.
"We now have 45 owners, all of them employees," says Doug Walker, who
served as Alberta Regional Manager from 1995 until the recent announcement.
"It is good news for Timberline and our forestry clients, in that it represents
a measured, well-planned change in ownership rather than any sort of disruptive
change in company structure. Transitions in company ownership can often
be difficult, but I think this is one of the rare successful transitions
of a consulting firm - from being entrepreneur-run to being a well-managed
employee-owned company."
Godfrey, meanwhile, says the growth of Timberline from its early specialty
in timber cruising and evaluation to a 200-employee full-service consulting
firm has been a pleasant surprise to him.
"We've become one of the biggest forestry consulting firms in Canada, though that wasn't our initial goal," he says. "Timberline just grew as industry expansion prompted us to add more staff and new capabilities, such as in forest inventory and Geographic Information Systems, growth and yield modeling, timber supply models, operational planning - a full range of services."
About half of Timberline's staff work in Alberta's Edmonton and Athabasca offices. Southern B.C. operations operate from Vancouver and Victoria and Northern B.C. operations run out of Prince George. Walker says the Alberta region also serves clients in the Yukon and Northwest Territories as well as other Prairie Provinces and Ontario. Continued expansion across the country and internationally is seen as one key to continued growth of the company, he says.
"Expansion of the forest industry fueled our growth over the first 30 years," says Walker. "Now I believe the company will grow through provision of value-added services such as information technology, enriched services, going beyond the traditional boundaries of our business, as well as geographic diversification."
"Alberta is a very interesting place to work, because increasingly we have to integrate the full range of disciplines into forest management planning," says Alberta regional manager Clarke. "I'm extremely excited about the opportunities for Timberline - there are so many new places we can take forestry - and other resource industries - here and across the country."
Timberline's new executive team is committed to moving Timberline forward, being responsive to Canada's changing forestry community while implementing smooth ownership and management transition.
-David Holehouse - The Edge
For more information contact Doug
Walker.
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