Business View Magazine | July 2022

23 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 those with those skill sets, making it difficult for companies to retain staff who can quickly move within or between industries whenever they want. “One of our main contractors lost several key people over the winter, and it had a major effect on their operations,” shares Young. “They did not have the manpower to keep the harvesting system moving at full throttle, which created a domino effect that affected all players downstream.” The forestry industry has various initiatives to solve these challenges in partnership with industry stakeholders like DFMC. For instance, Sustainable Forests Initiative (SFI) currently runs Project Learning Tree (PLT) Canada in partnership with forestry companies and local universities to promote the industry, from running job fairs to taking students through forestry workshops. Young notes, “Last year, we partnered with Domtar to collaborated with Lakehead University to host portions of Lakehead University’s Forestry Field Camp. Students got to experience the forest management and forest operations process, from taking what we plan in our FMP’s to implementation of operations for forest renewal to final felling and back again.” While this mode of promoting the industry is adding enhancing students understanding of various forestry courses at the universities and colleges, Young points out that there is still a gap in how newly graduated workers transition into the workforce. “We still face a bottleneck in transitioning new workers from theoretical knowledge to practical competence where they can work in operations or operate machinery,” he explains. “We are talking with industry stakeholders on how to create a training program that solves this transition, which currently relies on workers taking time away from productive work to train new employees.” As the company looks ahead, the future of forestry appears at a crossroads. A generational change, evolving legislation, and climate factors are forcing it to transform – something Young anticipates will require significant changes from industry players like DFMC. He shares, “We hope to see the industry involved more in forest restoration and protection of endangered species, especially from a legislation perspective. We also hope to see a lightening of the administrative burden that foresters bear in managing forests.” Looking internally at DFMC, Young hopes the company can innovate more around growing new forests and extracting more value from fewer forested areas. He acknowledges, “The changes in the industry, spearheaded by stricter certification standards, increased public policy, and increased non-forestry demands of the public forest, indicate that we must look at the means to get more value out of less forested area. That challenge is the most exciting thing that’s around the corner for us.” DRYDEN FOREST MANAGEMENT COMPANY LTD . Engage. AT RESOLUTE, WE KNOW THAT FOREST PRODUCTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO OUR DAILY LIFE. THAT’S WHY WE BELIEVE IN RESPONSIBLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND ENGAGE IN MAINTAINING A BALANCE BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PRIORITIES. resolutefp.com WOOD PULP PAPER TISSUE