Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 6

77 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 6 “This year, we are planning to plant half a million trees on private land as part of Forest Ontario’s 50 Million Tree program,” Green reports. So far, the company has leveraged similar projects to create a staggering 77,000 tons of carbon offsets. “We are hoping to expand this side of our business because of the obvious (climate change) need across the world,” he adds. Achieving these ambitious goals is certainly not going to be a solo act for FRMG, as both executives admit, with the company relying on key partners for support. “Heritage Reforestation Inc. is one key partner we rely on when planting trees on private and Crown land,” says Vivier. “They will play an integral role in helping us achieve our objective of planting ten million trees by the end of the summer planting season this year.” FRMG will need all the help it can get, given the growing issues surrounding climate change and the public’s general concern about sustainability, plus a move away from plastics, and the heat of the lumber market. Green notes, “Part of our business is coming up with new methods and new technologies to address these critical concerns. We see significant growth in the forest management sector and the use of satellites for monitoring and mapping forests.” The company is also relying on high-resolution and up to date SkyForest data to feed into models for sustainability of forests. “We are using SkyForest data to project and forecast the quality and health of forests to understand how they will look over time,” says Vivier. “By using these types of tools and technologies, we hope to play a role in managing and even tackling some of the difficult challenges that humanity will face in the next decade, including climate change.” Proud to help you grow healthy forests PRT operates a network of nurseries across Canada and the U.S. Forest Seedlings Seed Seed Orchard Management www.prt.com F I RST RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GROUP INC . Overview showing how FRMG uses SkyForestTM to do frequent update mapping of forests Tree species map done by SkyForest. Each colour represents a different tree species