The local organizing committee of Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities will hold a public forum on Jan. 19, at 1 p.m. in the Wells Gray Inn.
The community dialogue session will explore the question, Forestry in the North Thompson in the post-beetle era. How will it differ in the coming decades?” The forum will be the second in a series as part of the province-wide Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities initiative. The upcoming session will continue to build on the ideas and opportunities expressed in the initial community dialogue.
The first forum was held in November, 2011, at the Wells Gray Inn. The participants were asked to share their views and perspectives on the question: "How do recent changes in forestry impact you and your community?"
The main concerns expressed were:
• More sustainable and stable employment
• On-going centralization of government decision making in Kamloops
• More local influence in forest land decisions
• The need for a forest vision for the North Thompson
• More diverse forms of timber tenure
• Education and training to meet the needs of younger workers
The Jan. 19 forum will have two objectives: first, to provide an update on efforts taken to date to address the above issues and second, to challenge the participants to define an action plan to address those issues. The focus will be on what to do and how to do.
Registration for the Jan. 19 forum will begin at 12:30 p.m. The forum is expected to last until 4 p.m.