Forest products course a hit
News
Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz
Posted 4 months ago
Diane DePauw never imagined the forest could be so beautiful — and useful.
"It really was amazing. I love to learn and this was so fascinating," she said about a two-week course she recently took about non-timber forest products.
Held at the Winnipeg River Learning Centre in Powerview-Pine Falls, the program opened up a whole new world for students wanting to learn what the forest has to offer other than lumber.
"We wanted to get people to look at the forest in a different way," Manitoba Model Forest general manager Brian Kotak said. "It's something that has a lot of potential."
The course, which had 13 students, explored the sustainable harvest, production and marketing of a wide variety of natural products from the forest. This includes wild edibles (berries, fiddleheads, mushrooms, teas, fruit leathers, flavoured birch sap), crafts (evergreen, dogwood and wild rose wreaths, diamond willow furniture, driftwood art, tamarack coat racks) and personal care products (salves, soaps, essential oils).
The curriculum was designed by Brandon's Dave Buck — former Manager of the Northern Forest Diversification Centre in The Pas — and Tim Brigham of Royal Roads University in Victoria.
"It really is the first of its kind," Buck said of the course, which was originally designed in 1999.
"People tend to think of the forest as a green mass that's good for lumber and that's about it. What we're teaching people is every plant has a use."
The course taught a number of techniques used by Aboriginal cultures for thousands of years. Students like DePauw made pussy willow wreaths, poplar bud salve, willow walking sticks, birch candle holders, and more.
"I never expected it to be so fascinating," DePauw said. A teacher by trade, she said the course not only taught her new skills, but also gives her the ability to pass them onto others.
Non-timber forest products represent an ideal business opportunity for communities located in the boreal forest. It is particularly well suited to First Nation peoples, who have a strong cultural connection to the land and whom have traditionally not benefited from the economics of the traditional forest product sector.
The non-timber forest products industry is already putting millions of dollars into the pockets of individuals and small entrepreneurial businesses across Canada. For example, the Lac St. Jean region of Quebec is one of the largest producers of wild blueberries in North America, with direct sales of $40-50 million per year. Non-timber forest products production dwarfs the traditional forest product sector in this region.
For a community like Powerview-Pine Falls, which recently saw its paper mill shut down after a labour dispute, it offers some hope for a community that has relied so heavily on traditional forest products like pulp and paper.
"It doesn't really have the potential to replace mill jobs," Buck said, but added that getting people to think of the forest in a new way is always beneficial for any community located within the boreal forest region.
"Most of the students, when they started the course, really had no idea about trees, the forest, the plants. Well, by the end of the course they were just bubbling. It was really great to see them so involved in it."
