Elmsdale Lumber employee John Casey in CFI’s Top 10 Under 40

View Introducing CFI’s sixth annual Top 10 Under 40
By Canadian Forestry Staff, on www.woodbusiness.ca, oct 3, 2018.

Some extracts:

 Canadian Forest Industries is proud to be running its sixth consecutive annual issue showcasing the Top 10 forestry leaders under 40 years old… These forestry stars work in every aspect of the forest industry from coast to coast and they love what they do.

What their co-workers have to say is a testament to their contributions to forestry.

JASON CASEY
Forest inventory manager, Elmsdale Lumber Company, Elmsdale, N.S.

If you are looking for Maritime College of Forest Technicians graduate Jason Casey, you might try looking in the field, in the boardroom, in the community or in the classroom.

A forest technician by trade and a forester/environmentalist by heart, perfectly describes Jason whose keenness to safeguard the sustainability of the Nova Scotia forest resource is evident by the long-term goals he has shaped and manages for his employer, Elmsdale Lumber Company.

But, his work doesn’t end with Elmsdale Lumber. The 38-year-old’s expertise, and his willingness to share, learn and teach has resulted in the forest community, including representatives from the province, the industry and the public, reaching out for his advice.

“Jason has exemplary skills in compiling forest management plans, using GIS to analyze and construct forest inventory maps,” says colleague Tim O’Brien.

“Jason is a family man who also loves to grow high value trees,” says colleague Marcus Zwicker. “His experience and willingness to learn from others and to keep an open mind produces high quality work… I have the outmost respect for Jason and his approach to forestry. The forest industry’s future looks brighter because of leaders like Jason Casey.”

“Early in his career, it became apparent that Jason was a self-starter, well-versed in his field, and eager to continually study forest applications to be the best in his field,” notes colleague Steve Marsters.

Aside from his dedication to the industry, Jason is a dedicated husband to his wife Courtney and father to five-year-old son, Logan. Jason and his family truly enjoy the wilderness and one of their favourite family past-times is camping.

Congratulations, Jason and Elmsdale Lumber!

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Elmsdale Lumber Co.  is a family-owned business located in Elmsdale, approx 10 km from Halifax Airport going north on the 102. Its roots go back to Walter S. Wilber in Elmsdale in 1917:

Walter owned a wool-pulling and hide tanning operation located in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia operating under the name of W.S. Wilber. In 1917, he built a sawmill to produce lumber for shipment to the United Kingdom in support of the World War 1 effort.

In 1939 he established a stationary sawmill in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia. (Source: ELCo website)

Walter Wilber’s grandson, Robin J. Wilbe, is the current President, and his great-grandson the VP.

Elmsdale Lumber maintains an informative, user-friendly  website. Their Newsletters for 2017 and 2017 are posted on the website and provide some month by month detail of challenges and perspectives, and some friendly chat about people and places and events. I appreciate learning about the challenges. I do not agree with all of the perspectives that are expressed but I am definitely informed by them.  Thx, Elmsdale.

The January 2018 Newsletter offers some comments on the Independent Review:

Late last summer, our Nova Scotia Government announced that an independent review on how Nova Scotia Forests are being managed would be conducted over the next few months with conclusions and recommendations presented to our government by the end of February. The job was tasked to William Lahey, a former Deputy Minister of Environment and Labour, who is currently the President of the University of Kings College. During this investigation, some aspects of timber harvesting on Crown Lands were put on hold. It was decided that until the report was finished, the approval of any new harvesting activity on Western Crown Lands would be suspended. Harvesting activity was permitted on previously approved blocks, however, this presents some challenges with a reduced basket for operations logistics.

As most of you know, the fiber allocation we receive from crown land is managed by Westfor Inc. which represents all the mills acquiring crown wood from the western part of the province. The manager of Westfor, Marcus Zwicker, is dealing with these challenges and delivering fiber to each mill the best he can with what he has to work with. We are unsure what is going to come out of this report and how this will affect us going forward but we are hopeful that our government recognizes the important role industry plays in forest management in Nova Scotia. The crown portion of our wood supply is an important part of maintaining our fiber needs and we hope that we will continue to be able to count on this for our future success. For now, our industry is no stranger to change and I am confident we will adapt and work with the parties involved to continue to thrive going forward.

The last newsletter posted is that for June 2018.

‘Quite curious how they will comment on the Report from the Independent Review.


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