Faces of Forestry is an initiative of the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) to highlight people doing great work to enhance our forests throughout British Columbia. This month, we feature Erin McLeod, a Silvicultural Accredited Surveyor at Cabin Resource Management and a member of the management team for the Nakusp and Area Community Forest (NACFOR). Additionally, she is pursuing her credentials as a Forester in Training and a Biologist in Training.
Erin and her younger brother were raised in the tight-knit community of Nakusp, which allowed her to appreciate the natural beauty of the West Kootenays from a young age. She was first introduced to forestry in 2015, when she worked as a summer student with True North Forestry Consulting.
“True North was the previous manager of NACFOR, so I started out doing cutblock development and layout on the community forest, which essentially means developing a proposed harvest plan and site plan. That was my first job in forestry, and it was a great introduction to the industry,” she recalled.
After this initial experience, Erin pursued other roles while completing her degree at the University of Victoria (UVic), where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. The Co-op education program at UVic allowed her opportunities to work for Natural Resources Canada at the Pacific Forestry Centre and for Parks Canada in Kootenay National Park, where she became more interested in research and field data collection.
She then spent another summer working for True North Forestry and developed a Migratory Bird Management Practices document for NACFOR. In 2020, she began her full-time career in the forest industry, and her time outdoors further ignited her passion for forestry and wildlife biology.
“I grew up in a forest-industry based community, so I knew what forestry was, but I didn’t really know how I could incorporate my interest in wildlife and sustainability into the industry,” she said. “As a student, I was given the opportunity to explore my interests and incorporate them into the work that I was doing. I got to look at things like forest health and Douglas-fir beetle management, migratory bird management, invasive species, and wildfire risk reduction.”
Working with NACFOR, Erin found a position that allowed her to pursue her interest in wildlife biology but also helped her develop a new passion for forest management. As a consultant, she also works on wildlife habitat assessments for forest companies and collaborates with the Arrow Lakes Caribou Society for their Caribou recovery projects in Nakusp, including the Central Selkirk Caribou Maternity Pen.
NACFOR has partnered with FESBC for several years, receiving investments for wildfire risk reduction and fibre utilization projects around the community of Nakusp.
“Since 2019, we’ve partnered with FESBC, mostly focusing on wildfire risk reduction. I did a lot of the field work for those first few projects, and it’s been great to work with them for so long,” Erin said.
This funding enabled NACFOR to develop a community wildfire protection plan for Nakusp and implement proposed wildfire risk reduction treatment areas.
“We began treating the higher priority areas around town and did a lot of community outreach to explain what we were doing and the benefits of wildfire risk reduction because it was a very new principle for a lot of people at the time,” she explained.
NACFOR also received additional funding from the BC Community Forest Association, in partnership with FESBC, to treat parts of their community forest, which is now in its second phase.
In addition, the community forest benefitted from Mercer Celgar’s projects with FESBC for fibre utilization, allowing for better use of smaller harvested fibre.
“Instead of the fibre going into a slash pile, we are able to process it and put it onto a truck and haul it down to Mercer’s pulp mill,” Erin noted. “We are using that funding to cover the cost of the incremental processing and logging fees of those small pieces, plus the costs of trucking it down to Mercer’s facility.”
The community has responded positively, recognizing the reduced waste generated from harvesting. “I don’t think any of these projects would’ve happened without FESBC’s support and funding,” she added.
Erin enjoys the variety of work she gets to do as a consultant, which changes with the seasons and project types, and appreciates the opportunity to be innovate and share new ideas within the community forest. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing the benefits of forestry, beyond just logging revenue.
“One of the reasons why we have a community forest is to provide revenue to our community, but it goes beyond that. We also have an opportunity to manage this land base around our community and we can do so in the most sustainable way possible while also aligning with our community values,” she said.
Living in Nakusp, Erin enjoys spending most of her free time skiing, biking, camping, hunting, and fishing with her friends and family. Outside of work, she has also been a volunteer Ground Search and Rescue member of Arrow Lakes Search and Rescue since 2014, and serves as a volunteer board member for the Nakusp Rod and Gun Club and the Nakusp and Area Community Foundation.
Thank you, Erin, for your dedication and innovative approach to good forest management, ensuring that future generations can enjoy the forest and all its values.