The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council Forestry Department assists the member bands with any forestry activities or ventures that they may be pursuing. We also assist in high-level discussions and strategy development with the Ministry of Forests and Industry representatives. It is important to the Forestry Department that the resources in the Secwepemc territory are managed in a sustainable manner and that the Secwepemc people benefit from the resources that are harvested from their territory.
The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and eight of the member communities have formed a corporation called the Secwepemc Economic Development Corp. (SEDCO). Through SEDCO our goal is to pursue economic opportunities such as sustainable forest management, forest salvage opportunities, and explore value added opportunities to provide benefits to the participating communities.
Current Initiatives / ProjectsSEDCO currently holds a 3-year non-replaceable forest license to salvage fire killed timber from the 2003 McLure wildfire. To date approximately 190,000m3 has been harvested. When marketing this timber it was apparent that there was a flood of timber to the local sawmills. SEDCO was successful in attaining an export permit to market the raw logs in the USA. To date this is the largest export permit in the province as we have shipped approx. 109,000m3. SEDCO is in year 3 of the license and plans to harvest and sell the remainder of the logs to the USA. This venture has been very successful to SEDCO and thus has provided benefits to the members. Prior to the completion of the license, SEDCO will be pursuing another forest license.
Staff
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Jeremy Boyd - Director
Jeremy Boyd iss the Director of SNTC's Forestry Department. He is a RPF and has a Master’s of Science degree in Forestry from UBC. Jeremy is from the Tsilhqot’in Nation and has extensive forestry experience from forestry development to academic research. He enjoys assisting and learning from the SNTC communities forest professionals and members. |
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Aaron Higginbottom - Forest Technician
Aaron joined the SNTC Forestry Department in June 2006. He received a Natural Resources Diploma, in Forestry, from the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in 1998. Aaron began his career with Ts'kw'aylaxw, working in his community's Treaty Department and then as the Natural Resources Officer. Aaron also has a experience in the political arena, he served four terms on Council in his community. For the past 8 years Aaron has been involved with SNTC as a Forest Technician Representative, he now looks forward to representing SNTC and working directly with the communities.
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