Academic Training & Experience

Erik has experience in the forests of BC, Washington, Oregon, California, and Finland, attending BCIT to receive his Diploma in Forestry.

He received his Bachelor of Forestry in Finland, which included time at the University of Washington being trained in all of the Ologies by world-renowned Forest Ecologist Dr. Jerry Franklin, who has been involved in BC in the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel Reports 1995 and his development of Ecosystem Based Management.

Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) is the foundations of the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement and is being implemented on Haida Gwaii.

His experience with Ecosystem Based Management and Ecological Forest Management stems from his training in BC by people like Andy MacKinnon, the former Old Growth Ecologist for the BC Ministry of Forests and, as mentioned, Jerry Franklin at the University of Washington.

He has performed on nearly every on-the-ground woods job:  layout of roads and cutblocks, to timber cruising, falling and bucking Second Growth trees, to driving a wheeled skidder and setting the chokers behind it. Also, Harvesting Inspections, Post Harvesting Inspections to check compliance with Cutting Permits and Silviculture Prescriptions, checked Requirements for Forest Company declarations of Regional Delay and Free Growing.

BC Ministry of Forests

He has inside knowledge of the BC Ministry of Forests, working for them for 13 years:

• Speaking of historic forest management and harvest scenarios: He managed the Cutting Permits and Silviculture Prescriptions, Silviculture Activity Reporting, and Forest Cover Updating on a 2 million Hectare Forest District for 10 Major Forest Companies with 30 different operations, BC Timber Sales, and Woodlot Licenses. The main thrust of the work involved advising Forest Licensees how to lay their cutblocks, to meet legislation and regulations for within each cutblock, and the retention of representative Old Growth in Wildlife Tree Patches and Riparian Reserves. As a result, he was an implementor of Ecosystem Based Management that was the focus of the BC Forest Practices Code 1994-2004.
• Speaking of historic forest management and harvest scenarios: All of the Silviculture Data above was entered, monitored, and managed by Erik in a Mainframe Database that was the precursor to the current RESULTS Silviculture Provincial Database/System. He also performed some of the initial coding of the RESULTS Application.
• Speaking of historic forest management and harvest scenarios: He worked with Ministry Information Management Group (IMG) staff to create a weekly upload of Silviculture Data into the Ministry’s Inventory Database with Quality Control and Quality Assurance. He was also the Application Analyst for the Ministry at IMG for the VEGCAP App which captured Vegetation Data that was then uploaded to the Ministry’s Vegetation Resources Inventory (VRI).

Historic Colonial Forest Management

Erik knows know a lot of the changes in forest management over the past 180 years under Colonial rule (Huge Greenberg!).

He locates, collects and summarizes historic logging, post logging fire, wildfire, salvage logging, tree establishment and growth, droughts and climate data for Alaska, BC, Washington, Oregon, and California.

He also examines historic forest management and harvest scenarios from 1880s–1957, at least to identify where hidden and forgotten carbon pools are located.

Erik has a strong understanding of the implementation of Forest Science and in particular Silviculture Systems and Stand Tending and Replanting, and Silviculture Surveys. He has Lifetime Certification as a Silviculture Surveyor.

Erik is well-versed in Forest Science over the past 100 years or so, including who has conducted the research, where it was carried out, and its possible on-the-ground applications in BC and the Western US.

Continuing Experience

• Two teaching jobs as a University Credit Instructor in the Applied Coastal Ecology (ACE) Program in Prince Rupert at Coast Mountain College: May/June 2024 & 2025.
• 2025-2029 teaching a UVic University Credit and Micro credential course through Continuing Studies and the Restoration of Natural Systems Program about the Interactions and Impacts of Forest Management and Fire Management, Nature-Based Solutions, and his concept of Ecosystem Decoding.
• Climate Adaptation Research Lab from Transition Salt Spring with a project that looks at Watersheds, Climate, Nature Based Solutions, Reducing Wildfire Risks, Carbon, Increasing Biodiversity, Increasing Biodiversity especially Creating Openings that allow Shrubs and Herbs to flourish.
• He recently returned to his old Ministry of Forests Silviculture Zone on Northwest Vancouver Island (North of Zeballos and Fair Harbor to Kyuquot Sound and Chamiss Bay Camp) where the Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations have taken over the Forestry Operation from Interfor and will be pursuing Ecosystem Based Management and Cultural Resource Management. The first Restoration Projects will involve thinning 40-60 year old plantations with smaller Finnish machines and ecological objectives.
• He is also involved with the Cumberland Community Forest in the Comox Valley where Ecological Forest Thinning for multiple objectives such as Forest Ecosystem Health and Resiliency and Reducing Wildfire Fuel Buildups through 100+ years of growth.
• He has recently become connected with the Ma’amtagila First Nation near Malcolm Island who are trying to stop Old Growth Logging and their Tree of Life Project.
• He was a Priority Invitee to the Silviculture Innovation Program (SIP) conference in March 2024 in Vancouver.

He is always thinking about, and working to, reduce impacts of current and likely the same future forest management and harvest scenarios impacts on carbon sequestration potential (accounting for changing climate and disturbances) and alongside effects on:

• streamflow and water supply;
• forest productivity timber yield; and
• biodiversity indicators.

But perhaps more importantly, how can we restore these ecosystems, the Ecological Bank Account so that they will provide Ecological, Social, Cultural, and Economic Possibilities and Opportunities, especially to First Nations?