June - July 2001 - Logging and Sawmilling Journal -

The Saskatchewan Forest Centre is now open for technology transfer business.

The Saskatchewan Forest Centre will be acting as an information conduit for the industry in areas such as forest science and value-added market intelligence.

It may have taken a few years, but the newly-established Saskatchewan Forest Centre (SFC) in Prince Albert now has its objectives in place and intends to meet the immediate and longer term needs of the provincial forest industry. The business of the SFC is technology transfer and it is ready to do business. Its most immediate objective is to act as an information conduit for local industry, gathering as much relevant information as possible from a variety of sources worldwide and making it available to all the players in Saskatchewan's forest industry.

Topics will include forest science, value-added market intelligence and agroforestry. Another more immediate objective is to provide the requisite knowledge infrastructure to enhance the Aboriginal forest-based knowledge base.

A longer-term objective at the centre is to initiate technology transfer and support for the development of value-added or secondary manufacturing and tertiary industries for products that can be manufactured efficiently and competitively in Saskatchewan. In meeting this objective, the province has joined forest products research organization Forintek, and Forintek staff will be stationed at the SFC. "Forintek is there for their larger resource base and for all their tech services," says Robin Woodward, forest sector advisor for the Strategic Initiatives branch of the Saskatchewan Department of Economic and Cooperative Development. The provincial government is presently talking to industry to determine how it would like to participate in Forest Centre activities.

With the Saskatchewan forest industry putting its gloves on and getting down to work on a number of new projects, the new Saskatchewan Forest Centre is looking forward to the participation of a growing industry in areas such as applied research.

Its participation could include representation on a board to provide the centre with technical advice or taking part in a joint development of applied research in the province. Those sorts of details still need to be finalized. While the province's desire to establish a Forest Centre in Prince Albert was announced along with its major new forestry initiative three years ago, Woodward says the time spent over the last three years nailing down the centre's objectives was time well invested.

He says the province wanted to avoid duplication with what was available at other Forest Centres across the country. Its work also needed to mesh with local forestry's needs. "It took us a while to sort out all of the roles, the responsibilities and functions of a lot of those other centres," says Woodward. "And to go through the needs definition process to make sure we had our centre positioned correctly." One of the areas of potential forestry development that is somewhat unique to Saskatchewan and identified by the provincial government as worthy of further exploration is agroforestry.

It believes there is significant forest development potential within lands traditionally thought of as "agricultural", and that agroforestry is viable in combination with existing agricultural practices. The province estimates that large-scale woodlot developments, tree farming and farmbased value-added enterprises could generate over $400 million in near term investments in the forest fringe area and create $200 to $750 million worth of products per year, while providing longterm revenue to rural communities.

However, organizations such as the Woodlot Association of Saskatchewan warn that there is an immediate need to educate private landowners on the difference between clearing land and proper land management, especially relating to marginally productive land. That is obviously one area where the SFC can provide an invaluable service to landowners, in concert with the services provided by the Woodlot Association.

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