Are Woodlot Skills Relevant Today

             Forty years ago Mary and I were living in Botswana. I became amazed at the familiarity local inhabitants had with trees. Not only did everyone, young and old know the name of each tree, they would also recognize any piece of wood as to species at a glance. By contrast, how many of the trees dominant in our community do we recognize? How many of these trees do children growing up in Manitoba’s southeast today recognize?

This thought came back to me last week as a group of us met to discuss how best to manage the woodlots surrounding our community. What struck me was how little we all know about that topic.

Consider one example. Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. Some of those at the meeting knew about this method, some did not. What struck me was that no one at the meeting knew how that method can best be applied in the aspen forests that dominate this area.

Really this is not surprising. We all retain the knowledge that is relevant to our effective functioning in the world we inhabit. So the Batswana, who were dependent on wood for their cooking, were familiar with the tree species because this was relevant to their way of life. In my early growing up years, my father practiced woodlot management. He was dependent on that woodlot for firewood. But when I was about 10 years old, that skill became irrelevant, as we switched to oil heat in our home. I did not learn those skills from him. Today familiarity with computers and automobiles is seen as more relevant than knowledge associated with the life of yesteryear.

Many years ago, when our children were in elementary school, I found myself on the parent teacher council. We were concerned, then, that our children have sufficient access to computers, because we thought the acquisition of computer skills needed to be an essential component of relevant education.

Today the Hanover School Division has decided its educational focus should be “Education for a Sustainable Future”. The question then becomes: what is the knowledge and what are the skills that will be needed ten, twenty, fifty years from now? Who knows?

The world as we know it will carry on for a while, so honing the skills associated with our current way of life is necessary. But there also no doubt that we are facing an era that will be different. Probably the most significant change we are facing is hugely more expensive fossil fuel energy. It is hard to anticipate how that will affect our lifestyle, but it will affect how we heat our homes, how we get our food, and how much we travel. Can we anticipate what knowledge and skills will be relevant when those changes come into effect? To some extent we can. The South Eastman Transition Initiative consists of people who are committed to developing futuristic skills and knowledge now so we will be more prepared when we need them.

Eric Rempel