La Forêt modèle de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador en collaboration avec l’Institut forestier du Canada et le ministère des Ressources naturelles a assisté au développement d’une trousse d’éducation visant à promouvoir les forêts et l’industrie forestière aux élèves du secondaire. 

Futures from Forest, a été développé afin de sensibiliser et d’augmenter la compréhension envers les forêts et les pratiques d’aménagement forestier, ainsi que d’adresser la baisse d’inscription auprès des instituts forestiers postsecondaires. Il est destiné à certains programmes de cours, tels que l’école secondaire et les sciences de l’environnement. La trousse inclut un DVD de 45 minutes, des présentations PowerPoint, des liens vers des objectifs spécifiques du curriculum et des cours, des études de cas, des plans de leçon, des feuilles de travail et d’autres matériels supplémentaires. (more…)

Many forestry professionals comment of the misconceptions and negative opinions that our school students hold about the industry. In an attempt to address these misconceptions, the newly developed educational package “Futures from Forests” was launched in Corner Brook on Monday. The package was developed by the Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian Institute of Forestry.

Futures from Forests is an educational package aimed at High School students in the provincial school system in Newfoundland and Labrador. The educational package will be distributed to schools province-wide, and is targeted at select courses including High School Science and Environmental Science. The package will include a 45-minute DVD, PowerPoint presentations, links to specific curriculum objectives and courses, case studies, lesson plans, worksheets, and other supplementary materials. The DVD and teaching materials will be made available as a teaching resources for the 2009-10 school year. (more…)

Students of all ages have been invited to explore the Boreal Forest this fall during the Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador’s annual Forest Ecology Walking Tours.

 The Boreal Forest is the largest ecosystem in Canada, extending from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador. The walking tours offer students of all ages a chance to visit and explore a piece of the urban Boreal Forest in their backyard.

 The tour focuses on the biodiversity of the Boreal Forest along walking trails in the Corner Brook area. Participants will learn about ecology within a forest ecosystem by observing the trees, animals, plants and soils along the trail.

 Tours are free and are open to schools, organizations and individuals. The tours run from September 28, 2009 until the end of October. For more information, please contact Charlene Connors at (709) 637-7300 or cconnors@mfnl.ca.

Sean Dolter, General Manager of the Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador, recently traveled to Argentina to assist the Argentine model forests in advancing the Local Level Indicator (LLI) process.  LLIs, also known as Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) is a scale used across Canada to measure progress in sustainable forest management. Argentina has been a member of the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests, also known as the Montreal Process, since 1995.

 In Argentina, model forests are established to assist in the advancement of SFM and, as such, ongoing assessment of the impacts and changes resulting from forest management and other landscape management practices is an important activity.

Dolter and Dr. John Hall, a Science Advisor with the Canadian Forest Service, facilitated the third in a series of process development workshops held in Argentina. “The first workshop defined what the process was,” explained Dolter. “It involved defining and training, and beginning to build a suite of LLIs. The second workshop concentrated on indicators, defining suites of indicators in Argentina based on the first workshop.  This last workshop focused on filtering or screening the indicator suite to a manageable set.”   Dolter feels the workshop was very successful, and the next step could be introducing the process to the rest Latin American, using Argentina as an example.

“Global Village People” from Elwood High School were the winners of the Newfoundland and Labrador Envirothon held at Max Simms Camp in central NL in early May.

NL Envirothon is a fast-paced, academic competition involving teams of high school students tested on their knowledge of Newfoundland and Labrador’s natural resources, teamwork and public speaking skills.  Each team is made up of five students and a teacher sponsor. Students are tested in five areas: Soils, Aquatics, Forestry, Wildlife, and a current environmental issue which for 2009 was Biodiversity in a Changing World. Teams are then presented with information about a problem based on the current issue, and must prepare an oral presentation based on their proposed solution.

This year’s Envirothon was held in Bishop’s Falls. Event organizer, Bonny Moroni, saw the move to a more central locat

ion as an opportunity to encourage province-wide involvement. “Last year’s Envirothon was held at Killdevil Camp in Gros Morne, and teams from Labrador and the western and central regions of the island came out to compete,” said Moroni. “We moved the event to central Newfoundland to increase involvement from schools and sponsors across the province.” 

Ten teams participated this year, from schools in Corner Brook, Pasadena, Deer Lake, Port Saunders, Main River, Labrador City, Botwood, Grand-Falls Windsor and Conne River. The teams were vying for several awards: top scores in each of the five field tests, top score in the oral presentation, and the Neal Simon Team Spirit Award. Neal Simon was a judge at the NL Envirothon in 2006, but died later that year in a boating accident. In his memory, NL Envirothon established the award to honor the team that best exemplifies Neal’s love of learning and the natural e

nvironment of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Silex, a team from Exploit’s Valley High School in Grand Falls-Windsor, were awarded the Neal Simon Team Spirit Award as well as receiving the highest in the oral presentations. Main River Academy’s Team, Zwak Pak, scored highest in the Wildlife field test, and Team Braya from Roncalli High School won first place in the Aquatics field test. In addition to winning the Envirothon 2009 title, the  Global Village People from Elwood Regional High also came first in Soils, Forestry and Biodiversity field testing.

The Elwood team will go on to compete at the Canon International Envirothon in North Carolina this summer under the guidance of coaches Oral Roberts and Fred Pearson.

Bonny Moroni of the MFNL, event organizer of NL Envirothon, presents competition winners "Global Village People" of Elwood High School with their award.

There was something for everyone at the Department of Natural Resource’s 2009 Forest Fair.

The Fair, held in Corner Brook on April 24th and 25th, was hosted by the Department with support from the Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador. The theme of this year’s event was “From Tradition to Innovation,” and the Pepsi Studio was filled with exhibitors. 

Over forty booths could be found at this year’s Fair. One of the features included a display from the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, sponsored by the Canadian Forest Service. The interactive display, called Beyond the Trees, included a harvesting simulator and computerized forest management activities. Other exhibits ranged from tree planting with the Department of Natural Resources to snowshoeing demonstrations with the Pasadena Ski and Nature Trails.

 “Forest Fair is a chance to show all the different uses of the forests,” said Jana Vokey, event organizer. “We are also trying to promote local forestry products and services.” 

In addition to the exhibitions, a main stage also featured hourly demonstrations. Academy Canada showed visitors how to prepare moose meat chili and Newfoundland berry tarts, Bay of Islands Search and Rescue demonstrated the use of rescue dogs, and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper illustrated the importance of chainsaw safety. Forestry equipment, such as a harvester and fire fighting tools, were also on display.

The Fair received approximately 4000 visitors, including 900 students from the region who visited on Friday.  The Corner Brook Regional High School Jazz Band performed at the opening ceremonies on Friday morning, where the Honourable Joan Burke, Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services opened the Fair.

Saturday was also a flurry of activity, with mascots Marti the Pine Marten, Smokey the Bear, and NRCat entertaining children, wood-turning demonstrations, and carpentry projects with Academy Canada students. A mini-lumberjack competition was also held, where teams of two tested their log-sawing abilities.
 
“This event has something for everyone – from scientific displays to equipment demonstrations,” said Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources. “Our annual forest fair is a chance for us to educate school-aged children about the importance of the resource and the career possibilities, as well as promote the wide range of local products produced here.”

Many forestry professionals comment of the misconceptions and negative opinions that our school students hold about the industry.  In an attempt to address these misconceptions, the Model Forest is developing “Futures from Forests” in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian Institute of Forestry.  Futures from Forests is an educational package aimed at High School students in the provincial school system in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The educational package will be distributed to schools province-wide, and is targeted at select courses including High School Science and Environmental Science.  The package will include a 45-minute DVD, PowerPoint presentations, links to specific curriculum objectives and courses, case studies, lesson plans, worksheets, and other supplementary materials. The DVD and teaching materials will be made available as a teaching resources for the 2009-10 school year.    (more…)

The launch of the Forest Communities Program (FCP) in 2008 marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Under the FCP, the MFNL has begun work with rural communities to implement sustainable forest management initiatives. Residents in these communities have direct interactions with the forest and its resources, and the focus of the FCP is to support SFM initiatives in these areas. (more…)