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Tom Wright: recollections of a pioneer forester and tree farmer

by John Parminter

116 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0128; ISBN 1-55212-463-0; US$15.50, C$17.50, EUR12.50, £9.00

Thomas George Wright occupies a special place in the history of forestry in British Columbia. It could be argued that his arrival in this province was due to chance, or fate, but his accomplishments are certainly not. His knowledge, foresight and interests resulted in a career marked by innovation.

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About the Book Thomas George Wright has several hats in his wardrobe ; academic, consultant, company Chief Forester and private woodlot owner/manager. He has worn each one with enthusiasm, dedication and conviction. Malcolm Knapp, a long-time member of the Department and Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and first Registrar of the Association of British Columbia Professional Foresters (ABCPF) He believes the first person in British Columbia to actually function as an 'industrial' forester in the modern sense was his UBC colleague Tom Wright, who was employed by Bloedel, Stewart & Welch Ltd. as a consulting forester in the summers of 1941, '42 and '43. Wright is careful to describe an industrial forester as a professional forester 'employed by industry rather than government who prescribes appropriate forest management practices to ensure sustained yield.' These included making forest inventories, devising appropriate fire protection schemes, calculating allowable annual cuts and planning for the reforestation of burnt or cutover lands.

About the Author John Parminter grew up on 10 acres of second-growth forest in North Vancouver and this influenced his choice of forestry as a profession. He obtained a BSF degree in 1975 and an MF degree in 1979, both from the University of B.C. After 13 years as a fire ecologist with the Protection Branch of the Ministry of Forests, he transferred to the Research Branch in 1993. A founding member of the Forest History Association of B.C., he has edited their newsletter since 1982.

Reviews

Tom Wright - recollections of a pioneer forester and tree farmer
Parminter, John. 2000.Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC

Reviewed bv Glen Patterson

The Forest History Association of British Columbia and particularly John Parminter, the author, together with Gerry Burch and Ralph Schmidt as interviewers, deserve special thanks for chronicling the life story and career of this legendary and much-loved forester!
Much of this story is told in Tom Wright's own words giving even more colour to the account of how one man with no bounds of enthusiasm, long-range vision and a sense of mission had such an impact on the development of forestry policies and practices.
One of Tom Wright's favourite words in describing British Columbia forests is "dynamic." However, "dynamo" is the best word to describe the man himself.He came to British Columbia in 1941 with nothing but a Masters Degree from Duke University. Before the end of summer he had landed a job at $6 per day with Bloedel, Stewart and Welch.His assignment was to assess the effects of slash burning after clearcut logging and generally to advise what "the company should do to practise forestry."
Characteristically, and without hesitation, he interpreted these rather broad, imprecise directions as "carte blanche" authority to develop a comprehensive forestry program for the company including a complete report on the Port Alberni Working Circle and submission of a sustained yield management plan. Not conntent to perform a conventional regeneration survey of the "status quo" condition, he established a series of permanent sample plots to scientifically determine relations between seedling establishment and survival in relation to logging method, site, soil, competitive vegetation and exposure conditions.This 1941 field research also included forest ecology studies and resulted in a report that year to the company.
Mike Curran, Professional Forester, re-examined these 1941 plots in 1986 for the successor company, MacMillan Bloedel Limited. 45 years later, Curran found every original plot.In his follow up report, Curran paid great tribute to Tom Wright stating that he was "well ahead of his time," that his work was "accurate and precise," and that "present day foresters should strive to make such research documentation their common denominator."
Today, Tom Wright is widely regarded as an influential pioneer in several fields of British Columbia forestry practice:
* first practising industrial forester.
*first industrial researcher in silviculture, forest ecology, growth and yield determination and in forest waste utilization.
*first private tree farm owner/manager.
The book also records some of Tom Wright's major achievements during his very diversified and active career including:
*First Chief Forester and later General Manager of Coast Logging and Forestry, Canadian Forest Products Ltd.
*Dean of the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia.
*President of Association of Professional Foresters in 1961 and for many years a member of Council.
*Honourary Member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry with over 50 years continuous membership in that Institute as well as in the Society of American Foresters.
*Leadership for many years in the Canadian Forestry Association and in Scouts Canada.
Personally, I have had the great privilege of close association and friendship with Tom Wright since 1946 starting with my attendance in his Forest Economic Classes. I found him to be a most inspiring and motivating teacher always showing his love of trees and nature. While his lectures provided the required, and usually dull academic forest economic theories, they were enlivened with illustrations from his own real life experiences in the logging camps and with tales of his exciting personal discoveries in the Coastal rainforests.
In those early days, the subject of forestry was fraught with debate for, after all, the industry was mostly in the exploitive phase with no apparent end in sight to the rich reserves of old growth timber. Many foresters and industry leaders of the day were explaining why long-term forestry investments with a high risk of fire and forest taxes provided completely unsatisfactory returns, not even comparable to low bank savings rates.
Tom Wright vociferously argued that forestry costs were only a cost of doing business and should be charged to the costs of harvesting old growth timber as in the case of falling, logging, and transportation costs. He demonstrated how low these deductible forestry costs would be in relation to the total cost and he convinced many logggers that regeneration of the clearcuts was truly their responsibility. He was particularly convincing and influential because he backed up his economic arguments with first-hand knowledge of the phenomenal growth and yield of West Coast forests. I often think how much we need forestry spokesman today with the same sense of mission and understanding of the "dynamics" of British Columbia forests.
When I graduated in forestry from UBC in 1947, there were no job offers for foresters, only a few for forest engineers to lay out logging settings and design logging roads and bridges. The savings of my wife and I were depleted and we were becoming desperate for any job. I still owe a great debt of gratitude to Tom Wright who offered me a temporary summer job with undergraduate forestry students to survey the cut-over lands of Canadian Forest Products in the Nimpkish Valley on Vancouver Island. It was made clear that this was a summer job only and Tom Wright would be returning to teaching at UBC in the fall. When the summer work was over, he interceded for me and I was offered a menial job in a Nimpkish Valley logging, camp. This was not in forestry, because management, at that time, saw no need for foresters.
Fortunately, I accepted this job and later in 1947, when Tom Wright was appointed Chief Forester, I was appointed to be his one and only field man in the Nimpkish Valley operations of Canfor. Of course, it was understood that I was also to report to the Divisional Management of that Logging Division. Having two supervisors who had different expectations and who rarely saw each other wasn't always easy for me, but at least Tom Wright was able to negotiate a salary for me of $150 per month.
This was the beginning of my exciting, fulfilling, 40-year career with Canadian Forest Products and my happy, long association and friendship with Tom Wright.
In 1947, when Tom Wright was first appointed Chief Forester of Canadian Forest Products Ltd., the industry generally considered that Sustained Yield Forest Management was more of a European concept. After all, most large companies felt quite comfortable with their timber supply from private timber leases and licences, privately owned land and timber sales from Crown land.
Dr. C.D. Orchard, Provincial Chief Forester of the day, had just devised a new forest tenure following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Forestry in 1945. This tenure was called a Forest Management Licence. It would permit development of sustained yield units by combining private timber with adjacent Crown timber within a drainage or working circle area.
Some companies saw this new tenure as a chance to acquire a large increase in timber supply and expand their annual cut. Others were more concerned about the responsibilities and costs of sustained yield forestry practice. At that time, Canfor was in this latter category and wasn't interested in applying for a Forest Management Licence.
This is where the vision and persistence of Tom Wright came to the fore. At the time, I was his only staff person and was residing in the Nimpkish Valley far from his office in Vancouver. Nevertheless, during the winter of 1947-48, he brought me to Vancouver, almost clandestinely, to work in the basement of his home. My task, under his direction, was to develop a working plan for a sustained yield unit in Canadian Forest Product's Nimpkish Valley operations.
This unit comprised all the drainages of the Nimpkish Valley including all the Crown Timber areas. It contemplated full sustained yield management with protection and reforestation plans. It included allowable annual cut calculations based on whatever inventory and yield table information was available and appropriate. Area allotment checks were performed and a complete logging railway network for the rotation was planned. All of this work proceeded in the basement of Tom Wright's Vancouver home. Of course this ambitious project was only a theoretical exercise because Canfor had no rights to the Crown tenures and had not applied for a Forest Management Licence. I remember remonstrating with Tom Wright on this point, but he was not to be deterred. He had a strategy - and in the end, it worked!
From 1948 to 1955, Tom Wright was relentless in his pursuit of his forestry goals for Canfor's Nimpkish Valley operations. His enthusiasm, conviction and persuasive approach soon captured the imagination of the owners and management including even the old time logging superintendents. A modest tree planting program, started in 1948, was rapidly expanded each year with goal of matching annual planting acreage to that of the area logged. These plantations were often on Crown tenures and provided no assurance that Canfor would derive any benefit. A major hiring program for foresters and forestry staff was initiated in order to carry out extensive programs in forest inventory, research in silviculture thinning, pruning, fertilizing, direct seeding, growth and yield analysis for yield tables and even the beginnings of a forest genetics program. A strong forest fire prevention and suppression organization was installed including the building of two forest fire lookouts.
Tom Wright was determined that Canfor would be a leader in excellent forest management practices and, in the early 1950s the company belatedly pursued the award of a Forest Management Licence, long after the major Coastal companies had received their FMLS. Finally, in 1955, after Tom Wright's very convincing report was made to the 1955 Royal Commission on Forestry, the Commissioner, the Honourable Gordon Sloan, strongly recommended that a Forest Management Licence be granted. This was one of the last ones to be granted in Coastal British Columbia and was undoubtedly a tribute to Tom Wright's faith that doing the right thing will eventually be rewarded! This was a first of many triumphs for Tom Wright and a testimonial to his ethic of perseverance.
Later in my career with Canfor, I again had the opportunity to work under Tom Wright's direction in the industrial development of northern British Columbia and northern Alberta. In the early 1960s, Tom Wright with his perceptive and analytical mind foresaw the huge potential existing for pulp mill development utilizing solid wood residues from the sawmilling industry. He directed detailed studies of the amounts of residues available, their suitability and cost for high-quality pulp as part of feasibility studies for major integrated sawmill/pulp mill operations. He was also active in proposing to the Company and the government how to develop suitable tenures for the security of wood supply for the required massive capital investments.
Once again, Tom Wright's vision, determination and innovative approach helped Canfor lead the way in developing integrated pulp mill/sawmill operations in both northern British Columbia and northern Alberta. I believe this book is particularly valuable, not just for the historical record, but for the details provided of Tom Wright's background philosophy and lessons to be learned. Many of these lessons are just as true today. For example, Tom Wright is quoted as saying many years ago:
"I believe we foresters have not done a good enough job to explain that the working forest in many cases is just as beautiful, just as rich and diversified as a forest set aside not to be touched. We have a great challenge to demonstrate that in many cases walking through a working forest over a road that a logger built opens a whole vista of new wildlife, new vegetation and new scenic values. I believe we need to do a better job explaining that the working forest can represent the ultimate development of a forest for its highest overall uses, of scenic values as well as economic values, while supporting local schools, roads and hospitals and of course, achieving maximum allowable cut -."
Tom Wright has always decried the commonly held belief that allowable annual cuts must be reduced to allow for lower yield of second growth forests, the so-called "falldown effect." He always felt that allowable cut calculations were too conservative with insufficient allowances for improving utilization standards and full stocking of second growth forests. In this regard, his early concepts are proving true today as industry now moves in to cut high yield, high value second growth stands and as the Chief Forester of today often finds he can increase Allowable Annual cuts where previous calculations now appear to have been too conservative.
The value of this book for every forester, s library is not just for the historical record, but for the example and inspiration which Tom Wright can pass on to future foresters, particularly in how to achieve their professional ambitions and how to meet their sustainable management goals. Above all else, it demonstrates how a professional forestry career experience can provide great personal fun and fulfillment as well as major contribution to the public benefit.

Glen Patterson of West Vancouver, BC, writing in The Forestry Chronicle
July-August, 2001 issue
West Vancouver, BC

This attractive, short and stimulating biography is an account of the life and philosophy of the remarkable forester, Tom Wright, RPF(Ret). With many quotes and historic photographs, it outlines Tom's career from impoverished youth, through education, early consulting and war service in a US Forestry Engineer Battalion, to positions as the dean of forestry at the University of British Columbia, industrial chief forester and successful tree farmer.
Clear-headed and forward thinking, Tom has much to tell us about his imaginative management of forests which is both economically and environmentally effective. The biography should be required reading for both forestry students and critics of forestry in BC.
This is a well-written and well-deserved tribute to an unassuming, but wholly admirable forestry pioneer.

From a review by Roy Strang, Ph.D, RPF(Ret)
in Forum, A Publication of British Columbia Professional Foresters Sept/Oct, 2001 issue

Sample Excerpt

Early during his first career at Canfor, Tom Wright started Taxation Tree Farm No. 1, soon after the enabling legislation was passed in 1951. He acquired the first parcel of land that year and three others were purchased in 1952, when official status was obtained for the management unit.

The scattered parcels, between Port Mellon and Sechelt, had been burned or cut over around the turn of the century. By the early 1950s these lands were covered with second growth and considered unsuitable for real estate development. They were low-priced properties with limited potential, at least to most people.

Tom told a realtor that he was "looking for land that nobody else wants, with trees on it." The realtor knew of a piece of land that had been on the market for years, generating little interest. But Tom was interested:

"So I went into Gibsons and rented a fishboat and a fisherman took me up. When I got there, I could see why nobody would touch it. There were rock bluffs all around, right down to the water. But when I scrambled up to a bench on top there was beautiful second growth timber."

That property was the beginning of the Witherby Tree Farm.

On his weekends away from work, Tom scouted out and examined dozens of such properties that were for sale. When he found one with an acceptable price and forest cover suitable for long-term forest management, he bought it. His private holdings were assembled more or less at random but he didn't need to worry about competition as no one else was interested in such scrubby second growth in those days. He explains his motivations thusly:

"My obsession was to own land with trees on it. I would just pick up parcels of land when I could find them and then find the means to pay for them. A working person can buy an annuity or a life insurance policy for his or her old age, but I'd decided to buy trees. It was just my philosophy. I figured it would be a sound investment."

"I just made a formal application [to Victoria] and to my astonishment they approved it as Tree Farm No. 1 [in April of 1952]."

Tom soon went to his banker to arrange a loan. The banker asked how long it would be until some income was received from the land. Tom replied that it would be at least 10 but more likely 30 or 40 years. The banker asked what price could be expected for the logs. Tom had to admit that he didn't know. The banker asked what road building and other operations would cost. Tom had to say yet again that he didn't know:

"I can still hear his hollow laughter echoing through the bank."

Mortgaging the family home and furniture got the tree farm operations underway and development of management plans and logging activities commenced almost immediately.

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