| GUEST
EDITORIAL
Forest Inventory and Landmine Surveys are Related? "Timberline's newest corporate partner became involved with landmines and unexploded ordinance" One
of the reasons given for our successful bid was that we were able to demonstrate
that as a result of our forest inventory experience we could effectively
recruit, train, mobilize and manage over 120 Cambodian field surveyors.
In addition, our experience in database development and GIS convinced CIDA
that these combination of skills were just what the mine action community
was lacking. The project, which after two years, is nearly finished, has
been widely praised, and GeoSpatial has been asked to participate on a
UN sponsored Survey Working Group which oversees all standards and procedures
used in mine action projects. Over the next two years there will be over
10 new Impact Surveys contracted, and GeoSpatial International will be
working hard to secure several of the contracts.
So,
for all of you in Canada wondering about the relationship between forest
inventory and mine action, there are Cambodians wondering about the relationship
between mine action and forest inventory. Come to think it…there’s the
opportunity…a bilateral exchange…anybody interested, I know Vanna is!!
What a great way to get people working and sharing new experiences together.
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| Do you or your company have a philosophy about the reform of the BC forest industry? Feel free to contact timberlines@timberline.ca with any editorial ideas or your thoughts about this topic or any others. |
| On
The Web
ens.lycos.com
www.heli-log.com
|
Change
as a Constant
New Roles for the B.C. Forest Industry David M. Carson Timberline, Victoria Let me begin with two truths: ·
Tenure reform, including area-based management, is needed; and
In the context of these truths, and driven by many market and society factors, we have in B.C. a complicated set of evolving policies that lead to new roles for the forest industry. New role #1. Forest Stewards. Previously, with respect to Forest Licences, industry was little more than the proverbial hewers of wood. Licencees had little input into management goals or the development of inventory information. Industry will in the future set resource management objectives, programs, and funding priorities. New role #2. Forest Analysts. Industry was marginalized in a process central to their business – setting allowable cuts. They will now take ownership in, and lead, exploration of issues effecting sustainable harvest levels. New role #3. Information Managers. Where government dictated inventory design and methodologies with central goals and administrative systems, industry will empower itself with appropriate information based on operational needs. New role #4. Collaborators. Industry has seen each other as competitors in the woods. They will come to realize that the enemy is without, and work together to increase shareholder value through advancing the competitive position of British Columbia. Changes are coming from all points of the compass and new roles are being thrust on industry. This is eliciting a range of reactions. Emotions include: ·
Anticipation – of new opportunities to make a difference;
Change has become continuous, pervasive and unavoidable. Industry must, and will, rise to the challenge. |
| The
Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit – emergency wildfire mapping
Digital fire maps produced at the fire base camp for immediate product utility Co-authored by: Cary Gulka Timberline, Athabasca Makenzie Leine Timberline, Edmonton Timberline's Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit is currently contracted for emergency fire mapping for the province of Alberta. The unit is self contained and completely portable for setup at any fire base camp to provide maps with the most up to date fire features.
The Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit contains: laptop computers equipped with a CD burner, Zip Drives, cellular modem, Arcview, GPS software, base data information, hydrology features, ortho imagery, IRS imagery, forest cover data, a plotter/printer capable of printing maps up to 13x19, and a GPS unit with sub-meter accuracy all contained in a mobile office trailer. The Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit has the ability to provide the required support to meet the incident requirements from manpower to an on site GPS/GIS office. With the massive scale of wildfires in Alberta this year the government does not have the resources to map fires alone. The Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit produced 1898 maps in 18 days for the House River Fire LWF-031-2002 (253, 000 ha). This is not including additional maps the unit produced while operating the government GIS system in conjunction with Timberline's GIS system. The Wildfire GIS Mobile Unit is not only providing relief in an extremely active fire season but the benefit of a timely product for more effective planning and resultant fire suppression. For
information on the status of Alberta forest fires see the
Environmental Protection web site.
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Rules
Don't Necessarily Translate into Results
A case study example of results-based ecosystem mapping vs. a process driven approach John Johnson Timberline, Prince George A process-orientated approach (i.e. the current status quo in BC) defines many rules that must be met. In the past these rules have become the objective in themselves and are like many small operating “boxes” that may constrain ideas and innovation. They may say nothing about what the end landscape objective is and they often work against an end landscape goal. Our team of ecologists specializes in the mapping of ecosystems across large landscapes. A process-orientated approach called Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM: guided by Resource Inventory Committee Standards and MSRM quality assurance checks) was developed by the previous Ministry of Environment (1994) in an attempt to ensure that the highest quality ecosystem mapping was attained. There was NO dictated minimum map accuracy (i.e. no goals) and mapping costs for TEM ranged from $3.50 to $5.00 per hectare. Since 1997 a new approach has been developed to accomplish this same ecosystem mapping using computer modeling. The approach is called Predictive Ecosystem Mapping (PEM). At the conception of PEM (1997-99) there was no guiding policy associated with this type of mapping and practitioners were given the freedom to innovate and “make it work”. Although there are now associated government standards, there is still freedom to innovate. In addition the government dictated a “minimum map accuracy” before Predictive Ecosystem Mapping could be used for landscape level analysis; this created a results-based objective. Timberline subsequently completed a PEM of 416,000 hectares which passed the minimum required accuracy for one third the cost of a TEM; this PEM project scored +15% more accurate than a 100,000 hectare TEM on the same landscape that cost almost 3 times more than the PEM. This example shows that rules can create a false sense of security and that end goals may not be met. |
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