Research growing into practice There is a marked shift in emphasis for the role of the Foothills Model Forest as it moves into Phase III, its third five-year funding cycle.
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ustainability within our forests, and our ability to benefit from them, remain key objec-
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tives,” says Board Chair Kevin Van Tighem. But increasingly, the research partnership is taking the lessons it has learned and showing stakeholders far and wide how those lessons can
usefully be applied on the ground. “We will be putting together significant numbers of demonstration projects over the next few months that will show exactly how far we have come,” Van Tighem says. The shift from a research and knowledge-development focus in the first two phases of Foothills Model Forest to application of that work via technology transfer makes sense. “Going into Phase III, we are at the stage where we can capitalize on the gains we made in our first ten years. Those gains include strong working relationships with land managers and other stakeholders. Those relationships were not established a decade ago.” He recalls why the model forest was initially established. “Fifteen years ago, people were concerned we could not sustain Canada’s forests in the face of all the various demands placed on the landscape. Now, we can see possibilities that did not exist then. We can look confidently at the future, knowing we can maintain and even restore some of the values that we may have lost.” The Foothills Model Forest’s new priorities are reflected in a new logo and accompanying tag line research growing into practice. “We are transferring the knowledge we have gained into the hands of people who can use it, in practice and in policy,” adds Lisa Risvold Jones, communications and extension manager. Source: Lisa Risvold Jones, 780-865-8329 Email: Lisa.Jones@gov.ab.ca
LEAF THROUGH THIS... With the launch of a publication explaining a half-century of Alberta’s forest management, the Foothills Model Forest is opening its books, so to speak. Thanks to the model forest’s Adaptive Forest Management Program, and the collective talent of three men well-known in Alberta’s forest industry, Learning from the Forest: A Fifty Year Journey Towards Sustainable Forest Management signifies an innovative way for the Foothills Model Forest to “spread the word.” The book is a collaborative effort of lead author Bob Bott of Calgary, Bob Udell, president of the Foothills Model Forest
(manager of policy at Weldwood); and Peter Murphy, University of Alberta Professor Emeritus of Forestry. Bott called it the “biography of a landscape” but the book is much more than that, encompassing the evolution of the framework of forest management in the forests around Hinton for over half a century. Murphy calls it a good-news story. “It is one where people of good faith and good intentions come together to resolve a lot of critical management problems. I believe Hinton’s earliest foresters were quite visionary.”
Jasper National Park is committed to restoring and maintaining the ecological integrity of its land base. Prescribed burns are used to renew and restore its forests, and protect the community and surrounding lands from catastrophic wildfire. Natural disturbance research guides the Park's prescribed burn program. Photo Credit: Cleone Todgham, Parks Canada