Episode 131: Jeff McWilliams

Jeff McWilliams has more than 30 years of experience in forest resource management and wood processing operations, both as a consultant and in private enterprise. His main areas of expertise are in strategic assessment and planning for various forest resource applications, silviculture practices and operational planning audits, silviculture and stand management prescriptions, and management of harvesting and silviculture operations. Jeff has extensive experience managing large projects with multi-disciplinary teams, most recently as acting General Manager of the McBride Community Forest, and in particular supported the management of a $14M Forests for Tomorrow multi-year contract in the Cariboo to restore mountain pine beetle-damaged forests. As a consultant Jeff has specialized in auditing of industry and government forest operations as well as operational planning and management. He provides sound management solutions in the way of quality assurance and quality control programs and processes. Jeff has broad experience in all stages of forest development in both coastal and interior BC forests from planning through implementation. This includes permitting, site plan development, block and treatment layout, supervision, and monitoring. Working for a large coastal sawmill, he acquired experience in log purchasing, byproducts sales and the supervision of all phases of operation of a sawmill and planer. Jeff is well-versed in silviculture best management practices in BC. At the landscape level, he has contributed to a number of integrated management plans and silviculture investment strategies involving complex trade-offs. At the operational level, Jeff has prescribed and implemented silviculture and stand management prescriptions for a range of treatments including reforestation, fertilization, juveniles spacing, and commercial thinning in both coastal and interior BC. Previously, as an operational forester with International Forest Products Ltd., Jeff was responsible for planning and implementing all phases of a major industrial silvicultural program, including planting, silviculture surveys, site preparation, spacing, pruning, vegetation management, and silviculture prescriptions. In the area of forest ecology, Jeff has provided technical field sampling support for Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM) projects since 1996 and operationally applies his ecology knowledge in site plan and silviculture prescription development. https://www.bablackwell.com/