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Expanding Our Roots

Highlights from the Forest Capital 2005- Revelstoke, BC
Deb Wozniak

A Fine Woodworking Show was held at the Visual Arts Centre, September 10-30, 2005. Fourteen exhibitors entered 24 pieces in the show. Many visitors attended the Wood Transformed exhibition. Awards were given for Best Student/Novice work, Most Innovative piece, Best Furniture, Best Small Wood piece and Best Crafted piece.

In conjunction with the National & BC Woodlot Federation Conference, held in Vernon, BC, a tour of a local woodlot and the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation's log sort yard was organized for over forty conference participants on October 15, 2005 .

The grand opening of the District Energy System & Biomass Energy Plant was held October 29, 2005. The official Opening Ceremony took place at 1:00 pm, with short tours taking place between 1:30-4:30 pm for the general public.

The Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology hosted the Creating Bear Aware Communities 2005 Conference held in Revelstoke on November 2 & 3. Over fifty participants attended the two day conference. The conference summary will be available at www.cmiae.org .

A Legacy Project is being considered by the City of Revelstoke that will see the construction of a timberframe footbridge across the Illecillewaet River. The bridge will connect the community's River Trail System to another network of trails that has been informally established providing access the Arrow Heights subdivision and the wetlands south of Revelstoke. A major benefactor is interested in providing seed capital to initiate the project.

ForestEDWest II Conference- Banff, Alberta

The recent ForestEDWest II conference held in Banff in January brought nearly 175 forest education practitioners, classroom educators and supporters from industry, government and the not-for-profit sector together to highlight forest education across Western Canada . Workshops, resource displays and discussion groups promoted the sharing of ideas, strategies and goals in the delivery of forest education programs and discussed ways to help grow and sustain these programs for the future.

Deb Bazett, Kalon Nahachewsky and Debbie Sluggett at the Conference's Saturday night BBQ.

The conference was organized by the Inside Education Society of Alberta, a non-profit organization providing education programming to Alberta teachers and students, community groups and the public on issues related to environmental sustainability and the development and use of our natural resources.

One of the workshop speakers at Banff was Deb Sluggett (Okanagan-Columbia Educational Liaison), assisted by Kalon Nahachewsky (Okanagan-

Deb Sluggett presents at the Banff Conference.

Columbia), Deb Bazett (COFI South Forest Education) and Susan Bondar (Forest Educator, Thompson zone). Deb S. spoke on the types of forest education resources she has been involved with developing for teachers, in particular, the newest resource, "CLEM- A Journey into BC's Logging Industry". This is a DVD and lesson package that looks at the high-tech machines of the forest industry and career opportunities for students within the industry. It will be distributed to elementary schools throughout BC this spring.

All those who attended ForestEDWest II left with a network of contacts and ideas for the future and a new concept of the scope and breadth of forest education across Western Canada . Congratulations and many thanks to all of the volunteers and organizers who made this year's ForestEDWest II a resounding success!!

The next ForestEDWest conference will next be held in British Columbia in 2008, as it moves for the first time to the West Coast.

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