MEMORANDUM
To:
From:

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Principal w. Murison
Dean W. Keun

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July 29, 1971

Date:,

J .L •. Adams

SELKIRK COLLEGE

Castlegar, B. C.

ANNUAL ':REPORT 1970-71

The following summarizes activities in the Forestry Technology
Department for the 1970-71 year.

1.

STUDENTS

There were approxi~ately sixty-five applications for admission
to Forestry in 1970. Thirty of these were admitted to the first year of the
program and fifteen were admitted to the preparatory program. (In previous
years we only admitt~d twenty students to first year). One student dropped
·out of the first year during the year. Twenty-six of the remaining
twenty-nine successfully completed first year and were eligible to go on to
second year. All first year students were placed in forestry jobs for the
summer recess - about two thirds of·the class with the .B.C. Forest Service
and one third with indu~try.or consulting firms.
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Fourt~e~ students returned to begin second year·in September
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1970, three of them only working· on a. partial second year ·program. Two ..
full time students withdrew during the first month to work fcir a year before·,· •'
completing the program. Only six students comp'leted the program· satisfactorily
and were eligible to graduate. The remaining six students who should have · ·
graduated this year will have to return at some later date to fulfill the
requirements for graduation. All students who graduated and those who should
have but did not have been placed in permanent or semi-permanent employment
eight with the B.C. Forest Service and four with industrial or consulting
firms.
We also had a part time student from Jamaica with us for the year
on a United Nations F.A.O. fellowship. His main interest was in the logging
and engineering aspects of forestry in the B.C. Interior and its applicability
in Jamaica.
The Fores try. club had . an active year. under "the sponsorship of
Mr. Moore. They sponsored several dances and turned the college upside-down
and inside-out during F-Day on the last scheduled day of classes. They have
also proposed a small logging museum in co-operation with the Doukhobor
Historical Society. Forestry students, as usual, won the blood donor clinic
trophy and continued to dominate the student body in many other endeavors.
Many students and graduates of the College are joining the Forest Technologist's
Association of British Columbia. Hopefully Selkirk students will take over
this organization in the not too distant future.
2.

FACULTY

Mr. R. Blaine, Laboratory Demonstrator, resigned in the spring of
1970 to take a position with Crown Zellerbach in Courtenay. Since Mr. Blaine
had been teaching two courses it was necessary to replace him with a faculty

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member. Mr. W. Moore was employed in August 1970 to replace Mr. Blaine and
take over responsibility for the logging and engineering aspects of the
program.

Mr. J.F. Munro resigned in the spring of 1971 to take a position
with the Canada Department of Environment in Ottawa. Mr. K. Robertson,
Management Forester for Celgar at Nakusp was appointed to take over Mr. Munro's
areas of Forest Mensuration and Forest Management.
Besides their regular teaching duties forestry faculty took part
in many other activities during the year.
Adams - completed registrati3n with Association of B.C. Professional
Foresters
- made articulation trip to B.C.I.T. and U.B.C.
~ acted as director of Canadian Forestry Association of B.C.
Southeastern Region and attended directors' meetings in the
Okanagan
- elected as national director of c~F.A.
Secretary-Treasurer of Kootenay Section C.I.F. - not an
onerous job as the section is almost dead
- acted as National Director of C~nadian Institute of Forestry
-·attended and spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Forest
Technologist's Association of British Columbia
- spoke to several service clubs in the local area
- nominated for election to school board and only lost by
thirty-four votes.

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Holden - attended Annual Meeting of Association of B.C. Registered
Foresters in Williams Lake
- attended Roadside Development Conference at U.B.C. Forest
- was active in Canadian Institute of International Affairs
and represented the West Kootenay branch at Ottawa meeting.
Moore - a~ded citizens group in road location for road from Kinnaird
to Champion Lakes.
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- working toward registration with Association of B.C.
Professional Foreste~s
became a Rover Scout Leader in Castlegar

.c.-

' Munro· - attended. VJ.ester~ Eritomoiogi,cal ·-Instructors Conference :at tJ •. B
- contributed to South E_astern B~C. 'Forest Pest Control.·
Council arii;l gave co:urs.e on Variable Plot, Cru~sing t~.. this,
body in Cranbrook.
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- gave course in Variable Plot Cruising at College t~:fnd'llst:i:y
and forest service personnel.
3.

FACILITIES

. During the last year we purchased a small greenhouse for the use
of the Forestry and Biology departments. Work was begun on the construction
of a B.C. Forest Service model Forest Fire Simulator which will be operational
for the 1971 Fall term. We also added minor equipment for photogammetry and
mensuration including an additional Kail'. Plotter and Slotted Template Cutter •
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A twelve passenger Ford Clubwagon was rented on a monthly basis
to provide transportation for field trips and outdoor laboratory exercises.
4.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND LIAISON

There were no advisory committee meetings during the past year
there being no major revisions to or problems with the program. However
continuous personal liaison with members of the advisory committee was
carried out by all members of the faculty throughout the year. We continued
to make use of many guest speakers from the B.C. Forest Service and the
Forest Industry as well as calling on industry for many field trips to their
forestry and production operations.
Second year students were taken on one major field trip during
the Spring Term. We visited major forest industries in Washington and Idaho
and spent several days viewing and discussing research and operational work
being conducted by the U.S. Forest Service.
5.

PROBLEMS

Our major problem continues to be lack of space - both for instruction and storage of collections and equipment. An extra row of tables was
placed in the Forestry Laboratory in September to accommodate thirty students.
However it is almost impossible for people to move around during laboratory
periods. The fact that we do most of our lectures in the laboratory presents
problems in preparation and clean up. The wall between two seminar rooms
(GlO and Gll) was removed to provide additional laboratory space for Forestry
and a room with tables for Mathematics laboratories for the 1970-71 year.
However this room was used mostly by Regional and Community Planning. The
Drafting laboratory would have been suitable for many of our classes but
was timetabled for Aviation for all mornings. Many times during the year we
were forced to have two different classe's (Forestry and Planning) going on
in the Drafting room at· one time - not a desirable situation. These problems
may be worse in 1971-72 now that GlO - Gll has been converted to a single
purpose Biology laboratory.
Transportation for outdoor laboratory exercises and field. trips
also created some problems. There were a lot of conflicting uses for the one
van - particularly when two different field exercises were going o~ or when
the van was required to transport the athletic teams. We often had to depend
on students using their own cars. This is not·satisfactory because of insurance problems and traffic control--particularly on restricted logging roads.
We managed to get through the year without the services of a
laboratory technician. We lost some equipment or it w'.ls misplaced and we had
trouble keeping up with repairs. The laboratory had to be locked at all
times when not in use - even so a couple of locks were broken on equipment
drawers. There must be someone who has the responsibility for the upkeep and
control of the laboratory and the equipment in it. We also are building up
a library of research and technical forestry publication which students can
have easy access to. ·we need someone in the laboratory at all times or has
the job of keeping this library in order.

SERJ:?.RK
REGIONAi!.

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The greenhouse is not satisfactory - everything grown in it turns
red. Some essential part of the light spectrum is not getting through and
we will have to add some more ·.banks of flourescent lighting.
6.

A LOOK AHEAD

The number of applications for our forestry program (and ours is
not the only. one with an excess of applicants) indicates a large demand for
this type of training. We are turning away many well qualified students particularly from outside the region. Howeve~ available opportunities at
present do not seem to warrant expansion of technical forestry programs. I
feel we should be making strc1ng requests to the Department of Education to
start some long range and in-depth studies of needs for technicians in the
resource management area to provide some guideline for expansion of these
types of programs. I do not feel that we should expand our program until we
have definite indications that there will be employment available for most
graduates.
We may have to be a bit more careful about entrance requirements
in the future. The B.C. Forest Service up until very recently only required
a grade ten education for initial entry. They are now suggesting a minimum
of complete high school graduation preferably with Mathematics 12 - in other
words on the Academic/Technical program. The Forest Service is now encouraging their own employees to return to technical school if they want to
advance. Most of their people do not satisfy our entrance requirements
academically or regionally. Coupled with this is the apparent closing
Jown in the near future of the Forest Service's own training school at
Surrey. It may be that we should be considering a specialized type of program
for Forest Service employees who have not the entrance requirements but have
a good background of experience. It is likely that B.C.I.T. would get first
crack at such a program, being a provincial institution, but we should be
prepared to do something along this line also.
Over the next year wewill probably be looking very closely at
putting on a longer spring term. There are difficulties in some of our
courses trying to get in enough field practice during the snowy months. We
are also overloading students during our regular timetable. We will be
considering reorganizing the program so that more of the field oriented
work is concentrated in the spring term. This may require some adjustments
in faculty contract terms.
We will be proposing some development of buildings of a semipermanent nature on our Forest Reserve to improve our field instruction
facilities. Hopefully the next by-law will include some provision for this.
In the immediate future we will have to do some road and bridge work to
improve access in the area - hopefully in the Spring of 1972.
We have talked quite a bit about establishing an arboretum
and a small nursery at the College. This has been put off in the past
because there was no one in charge of College grounds on a full time basis
who could give such a project the required attention. We have done quite a
bit of planting on the grounds but most young trees have been lost to snowplows or mice. Now that there is someone whose full time responsibility will
be to look after the grounds we will be able to proceed with an arboretum
(worked in with the landscaping) and nursery.

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