Your Forestry Education & Resource Hub

In this guest contribution, Royden Trainor, Executive Director of GreenspringBio Innovation, explains how new tax credits, clearer procurement signals, and stronger financing align perfectly with the province’s strengths—reliable fibre, mill expertise, and a growing bioeconomy ecosystem.

He highlights emerging momentum across the sector, from mass timber and bioheat to new bioproduct and clean-fuel projects. With policy clarity and strong partnerships the province is well-positioned to turn residues into heat and power, build with more Canadian wood, and create lasting rural jobs.

Mapping and spatial analysis are critical to sustainable forest management, but traditional GIS tools often have significant licensing costs.

This session introduces QGIS, a powerful open-source platform that provides many of the same functions as proprietary software, with no licensing fees. We’ll walk through its core features, including tools like Spatial Analyst, which in other programs require costly add-ons, and demonstrate how they can be applied in forestry.

Drones are becoming an essential tool in forestry, offering new ways to monitor operations, assess forest health, and collect critical data.

In this webinar, you’ll hear an overview of the different types of drones currently on the market, the capabilities, and where each fits into forestry applications. Participants will also learn about the range of costs, from affordable entry-level models to professional-grade systems, and how to match the right technology to their needs.

Forestry generates large amounts of data, and making sense of it is key to informed decisions. This webinar will introduce Microsoft Power Query and Power BI.

Participants will learn how Power Query can streamline cleaning and organizing data from multiple sources, saving time and reducing errors. We’ll also explore how Power BI can turn complex datasets into clear, interactive dashboards and visualizations, making it easier to communicate findings to colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.

Moving from theory to practice, this session follows a real-world example of how drones collect and process forestry data. Participants will be guided step by step through the whole workflow, starting with flight planning and field operations, then moving into data processing and interpretation.

You’ll gain a better understanding of how drones can fit into your operations, what challenges to anticipate, and what kinds of insights the technology can provide.

Satellites provide a powerful perspective on forests, offering consistent, large-scale data for monitoring and management.

In this webinar, we’ll take a deeper look at how satellite data can be accessed and applied in forestry.

From monitoring forest cover and detecting changes over time to assessing land use and planning for climate impacts, we’ll explore practical examples of how this technology is being used today.

Join us as we dive deep into the realities of forestry management in Nova Scotia, focusing on the use of herbicides as a tool for sustainable growth. Hear from silviculture contractor Alex Feix and woodlands manager Rick Archibald as they share personal stories, discuss regulatory challenges, and address public concerns. From death threats and protests to the on the ground reality of herbicide application, this episode sheds light on the complexities, misconceptions, and future of forest stewardship.

Whether you’re a forestry professional or curious listener, you’ll gain a deeper understanding on what it takes to grow healthy forests for generations to come.

In this episode, we sit down with Sean Meister, President and CEO of Global Bluenosers, to explore his remarkable journey from growing up in a multi-generational forestry family in rural Nova Scotia to building a global network of Nova Scotians passionate about giving back to their home province. Sean shares insights on the values and lessons learned in the woods, the challenges and changes facing the forestry sector, and how his experiences inspired him to connect Nova Scotians around the world. Together, we discuss the importance of sustainable forestry, community resilience, and the power of global connections to shape a brighter future for Nova Scotia.

In this episode, we’re joined by Georg Ernst, CFO and controller at Freeman Lumber, one of Nova Scotia’s oldest and most respected lumber producers. Georg, a fourth-generation forester, shares both professional expertise and personal stories from his family’s longstanding involvement in the industry.

Together, we dive into the dramatic impact of the new 10% tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, examining how these measures ripple beyond headlines to affect local sawmills, communities, and family-run businesses throughout Nova Scotia.

In this episode, we’re joined by Spencer Coulstring of Freeman Lumber, whose journey from science communications to passionate forestry advocate highlights the evolving face of Nova Scotia’s forest sector.

Together, we tackle public perception and the role of education in shaping the next generation’s view of forestry. Spencer provides insights on inspiring youth, the changing demands of the sector, and the importance of supporting one another, especially women, as the industry seeks greater diversity and resilience. We also uncover the challenges and hopes for a more sustainable, welcoming forestry sector, making this episode a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of the industry.

In this episode, we’re joined by Derek Nighbor, President and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, who offers an inside look at the tough challenges and bold opportunities shaping Canada’s forestry sector today.

Derek takes us through the complexities of trade tensions with the United States, revealing how tariffs, shifting policies, and a changing global landscape have impacted thousands of jobs and entire communities across Canada. He shares the importance of unified advocacy, government partnerships, and building strong, solution-focused relationships with environmental groups to drive both industry and environmental progress.