July 19, 2016 4:26 pm 1 Comment
As the beginning of July approaches, the city of Williams Lake builds as almost indescribable atmosphere. Canada Day weekend in the city marks the annual Williams Lake Stampede, which is second in Canada only to the Calgary Stampede. This year the community celebrated 90 years of rodeo tradition and the city was abuzz with beautiful window murals,
July 19, 2016 3:51 pm 1 Comment
One thing that it appears we are unable to escape in forestry, is beavers. These small animals have a devastating effect on our forests. Most of the imagery we use is but a few years out of date, but when we’re sent to layout a block in preparation for harvesting, its almost scary the number of times that a block is either flooded or needs adjusting due to a beaver’s impact.
July 8, 2016 9:36 am Leave your thoughts
Last week a new phase of my job began: Crossing inspections. Millar Western owns hundreds of kilometers of road and within those roads are thousands of culverts and bridges, most of which are nothing but cross drains for the ditches, but some cross over larger streams or small rivers. There are two main reasons they need to be inspected; the first reason is from a financial standpoint,
July 7, 2016 7:50 pm Leave your thoughts
You spend the summer in Vancouver for the first time ever and not cram your weekends with tourist-like activities. A few weeks ago my friend and I decided it would be fun to explore some of Vancouver’s favorite attractions. The Capilano Suspension Bridge was our first stop and what a cool experience that was.
July 7, 2016 7:46 pm Leave your thoughts
“The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences”.
–Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
Two weekends ago my roommate and I visited our friend Ashley in Smithers. As we drove out from Prince George late Friday evening, I was mesmerized by the landscape around me. The lush countryside freckled with swamps was bathed in orange and pink hues.
July 7, 2016 7:33 pm Leave your thoughts
Back this week with a special unboxing for you guys. Just got this cooler from the Prince George Mill.
Let’s open it up and see what we have inside!
Bang bang!
Looks like we got a delivery of effluent samples from the mill for chemical analysis.
July 7, 2016 7:03 pm Leave your thoughts
One of our lunch time hobbies has always consisted of identifying uncommon plants we encounter or learning more about the common ones, like is it edible. Usually no. But now that fun past time has evolved into a legitimate project for school. A plant ID collection for a forestry course at University of Alberta, since I’ve just transferred in. I’ve gotten a huge head start,
July 7, 2016 6:58 pm Leave your thoughts
British Columbia wasn’t always made up of lumberjacks, like myself (I don’t actually cut down the trees, I just help in the production process, but I like the idea of being a lumberjack). Back in the 1800’s BC’s biggest attraction was a glittery yellow-y rare element called gold. And the man who struck gold in the Cariboo, was Billy Barker.
July 7, 2016 6:53 pm Leave your thoughts
Déjà près de deux mois que je suis à mon poste de stagiaire et j’appréhende déjà les deux prochains. La semaine dernière, on m’a invité à participer à un événement avec d’autres employés des ressources humaines chez Résolu. Nous avons été convoqués à Saint-Félicien, pour 1h de l’après-midi. Une fois assis autour d’une grande table, les gens se sont présentés.
July 7, 2016 6:19 pm Leave your thoughts
This past week (June 20th-23rd) I’ve been in camp at the Eagle’s Nest Resort on beautiful Anahim Lake, located about three and a half hours west of Williams Lake.
West Fraser is fairly new to this operating area; initial planning began only in 2012 and the first actual harvesting commenced in March of this year. West Fraser has worked very hard to do right by the First Nations and the small communities of the area before operations began,
July 7, 2016 5:48 pm Leave your thoughts
In my first blog I promised fishing would play a major part of my summer, and I would like to share some of my fishing experiences with all of you over the summer, but before I do I feel like I should touch upon the nature of fishermen. I have always found fishermen to be very much like magicians; we are masters of deception and we never tell anyone our secrets.
July 7, 2016 5:18 pm Leave your thoughts
This week I wanted to talk about something that I mostly find annoying in the woods: cobwebs.
I don’t have an issue with spiders. Some of them look kind of weird and I won’t pick those ones up unless I have to, but that for me is just a general “leave things in peace” rule. I’ve handled plenty of big spiders before;
June 20, 2016 9:44 am 2 Comments
I previously thought all wood products came from a same kind of pulp, but I was wrong. There are several different types of pulp, categorized by their specification and type of tree used. The pulp manufactured by the Weyerhaeuser Grande Prairie Pulp Mill is Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK), which is used for tissue, high-quality paper, paper reinforcement, filter, and even medical garments.
June 19, 2016 5:00 pm Leave your thoughts
It sounds cheesy but it’s an understatement to say DMI opens many doors of opportunity for their forestry students. My first two weeks of June consisted of mostly road maintenance, elementary school tours, and a surprise business trip with one of our planners to the AWES AGM. A large part of the first half of the summer requires weeks of road preparation before the summer haul can start in July,
June 19, 2016 4:42 pm 2 Comments
Day 1: A quick glimpse into camp life
I was so pleased last week when I found out that my partner, Erin, and I would be staying out at camp in Chezacut for two nights. The area known as Chezacut is about two and a half hours west of Williams Lake, nestled between reservations in the beautiful Tsilhqot’in Nation of the Chilcotin Plateau.
