Standing on a culvert screened to prevent being plugged by beavers at a stream crossing in the upper reaches of the Skeena River system in northern British Columbia

 

About Edmund Redfield:

My interest in forest restoration is just a specialization of my over all interest in forestry and natural resource management issues. Forest restoration is a form of silviculture, but with consideration of values conventional silviculture often overlooks. Due to their complexity and species richness, riparian forests are usually where these values are the greatest, so projects in such areas are often the most productive.

Forestry appeals to me due to its multidisciplinary nature. Ideally it brings together physical and biological sciences with politics and economics to aim at sustainable management of natural resources. However, industrial forestry traditionally has had a narrow focus on production of biomass as fibre or timber, and failed to consider other products and services forests offer. Meanwhile, activists demanding preservation have frequently overlooked the fact that unless communities in forested areas can make a living from the forest as a forest, it will be lost to agriculture or other uses. For forest management to be sustainable, it must include end land uses that accommodate both timber and non timber forest products,.

I have an M.Sc. in Land Reclamation, Remediation, and Restoration (University of Alberta), and a B.Sc. in Forest Resource Management (University of Missouri). Additionally I am certified as a Fisheries Field Technician (Vancouver Island University, British Columbia). My M.Sc. research concerned reforestation of sites mined by the oil sands industry in Alberta. After my M.Sc., I was hired by the U of A as Network Coordinator of the Oil Sands Environmental Research Network. I represented the Network at meetings with government and industry, contacted researchers and institutions to invite their participation, and organized meetings and workshops for participants. Since then I've worked with a riparian restoration firm in the U.S. pacific northwest, and managed a native plant nursery in the Mojave desert for the U.S. Park Service.


I've also had significant and varied field experience. While working on my my undergraduate degree, I spent a year as an intern at the Centre for Rainforest Studies, a forest research station in Australia. As an exchange student in Finland, I researched economic and technical cooperation between the Finnish and Russian forest sectors, conducting site visits and interviews on both sides of the border. Prior to graduate school, I spent 2 years in the Peace Corps as an agroforestry extensionist in Kenya, working with farmers, schools, and community groups on tree planting, soil conservation, and alternative energies.

As a result of these experiences in management, extension, and teaching, my communications skills are well developed. I've recieved recognition from The Canadian Land Reclamation Association for presentation of my research results, and the University of Alberta for my work as teaching assistant. I've also published papers in several scientific journals and a chapter on forest policy in Australia, in a book on tropical forestry.

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Ponderosa Pine snag on the upper reaches of the Methow, a tributary of the Columbia River in Washington State.