The National Forest Week (NFW)-BC Coalition is seeking professional foresters to volunteer to talk to students about wildfire, wood products, and “How forests make our lives better every day.”
The coalition, in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF), helps co-ordinate volunteers for NFW events, as well as forestry-related educational opportunities year-round. The coalition also provides free educational materials for teachers and students on request.
“Our programs share the knowledge of our volunteers, covering the full scope of forest stewardship, the forest environment, and the integration of forest values,” says Bill Bourgeois, PhD, RPF(Ret), NFW-BC executive director.
Nick Reinhardt, RPF, volunteers with the NFW-BC Coalition.
Help Explain the ABCs of Professional Forestry
National Forest Week-BC Coalition looking for volunteers to lead field trips and classroom presentations
By Michael Hall
Nick Reinhardt, RPF, invites hard-working, registered forest professionals to walk the talk and volunteer to help students discover the world in the woods.
It’s a worthwhile investment, he assures them.
“In today’s world of environmentally conscious and sustainability savvy consumers, the forest industry is constantly under tremendous scrutiny,” says Reinhardt, head of business development and a partner with Chartwell Resource Group Ltd. “My goal is to help bridge the ever-growing gap between urban dwellers and the working forest.”
Nick grew up snowboarding, rock-climbing, backpacking, and camping around Colorado. Now he leads business development for Chartwell in North Vancouver. He also looks for new ways to integrate technology in forestry and is a member of the National Forest Week (NFW)-BC Coalition.
The coalition was established in 2013 to encourage and promote community events highlighting the high level of professionalism in managing BC’s forest resources. It provides free classroom resources and helps connect teachers and volunteers for field trips and presentations year-round.
Nick joined the coalition in 2017 after talking with one of its founding members, Candace Parsons, RPF(Ret.), at a Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF) dinner. They knew each other from UBC. Nick shared a story of a classroom presentation he did for his mother-in-law’s Grade 2 class. It had gone well.
“’We would love to have you involved in National Forestry Week,’” she told him.
Last year, Nick spent a couple of days with new NFW volunteers, showing them the ropes.
He went to a Grades 3-4 split class at Archibald Blair elementary in Richmond with Victor Mate, RPF, a policy analyst with the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI), to discuss the environment, forestry, and wood products. Nick wore his high-visibility vest, showed the students a slide presentation, then took them outside to look for leaves, needles, and cones to identify.
“It was great,” Nick says. “The teacher absolutely enjoyed it.”
So did Victor, so much that he joined the coalition.
Nick also led a field trip last year with the Vancouver Kids Club at Pacific Spirit Park in Vancouver with two other NFW volunteers, both of whom he had mentored through the articling process leading to registration as a forest professional.
Students, and the parents accompanying them, asked about old growth.
Most of the trees in the park — as big as they are — are second-growth, Nick told them.
He explained the different types of old growth and how they are protected, as well as what forest professionals do, how they understand the environment, and what goes into their decision-making.
Students also asked if trees were edible and wanted to know what animals lived in trees.
“The kids were fascinated,” Nick adds. “And almost all the parents came away with a better understanding about the discussion around old growth.”
Nick sees the value in volunteering to talk about forestry with students.
“I find it really rewarding to go out with 20 kids who are just excited to be outside,” like him.
It’s also fun.
When he went to his son’s French Immersion kindergarten class, he brought a laser range finder to measure the height of trees. And he got to speak French.
“I grew up in part of my childhood in West Africa, in the Ivory Coast, and so I do speak French. So going out with the French immersion students, who weren’t really anticipating that someone would have the words or language skills to explain some forestry things to them in French, was really fun.”
Giving back to the profession is another benefit. Nick spends five to 10 hours a year doing field trips and classroom presentations for NFW, often in the spring. He gets to show that there are ways to protect the environment other than getting upset.
“The best way to make change in a system is to join it and understand how the system works and see where you can make those improvements.”
National Forest Week is, at its roots, about forest education and awareness.
“Volunteering through the coalition is just a great way to bring better information into people’s hands.”
·Email info@bcnfw.ca for more information about volunteer opportunities with NFW, or submit a sign-up form to get involved.
