• Rob Furness - Manager, KFS

Rob Furness graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Forest Management. He is also a Registered Professional Forester (RPF 1786) with the Association of BC Professional Foresters.

Rob has lived and worked as a forester in the Cowichan Valley for the past 15 years. He has 24 years of operational experience with the Ministry of Forests, industry and as a consultant. Rob’s 16 years with the Ministry of Forests includes working in 3 Forest Districts and in Victoria as the provincial silvicultural systems forester. In addition, he has been a consulting forester with LakeView Forestry Consultants for the past 8 years.

As the manager of Khowutzun Forest Services (KFS), Rob is responsible for the planning and implementation of the silviculture, logging, log marketing and firefighting programs plus all contracting ventures.

Rob has recently been successful in securing a Community Forest Licence on behalf of Cowichan Tribes with a 10,000 m3 annual cut. He will be responsible for the planning, government liaison, harvesting operations and silviculture on this licence. Rob plans to expand the forestry crew from primarily manual brushing work to include planting, deer browse protection installation, chemical brushing, slash burning and firefighting. Future opportunities will also include milling and remanufacturing opportunites, non-timbered forest products and a cedar oil / essential oils business.

• Cedar Elliott - Assistant Manager, KFS

Cedar Elliott was born and raised in the Cowichan Valley. He is a member of the Cowichan Tribes. Cedar started his career in forestry in 1999 with the KFS Silviculture crew on various contracts such as tree planting and pruning as well as various other forestry works. He is currently completing year two of his Natural Resource Technician Diploma through Malaspina University College.

As assistant forestry manager of Khowutzun Forest Services (KFS), Cedar assists in the day to day activities of running a crew of ten silviculture workers on various contracts with TimberWest, Ministry of Forests and Weyerhaeuser. KFS also has an engineering crew of three and one GIS Technician.

Cedar is currently being trained to eventually take over the roll of Forestry Manager for KFS and is job shadowing the present manager, Rob Furness.

• Kevin Stevens - Forestry Technician, KFS

Kevin Stevens a valuable member of K.F.S. has been with the company since March 2003.

Kevin started his forestry career in 1991-1996 as a general laborer and has experience in tree planting, brushing and weeding, tree spacing, and operating a log skidder. In 1996-1997 Kevin attended the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology acquiring the first year of his Natural Resource Technician Diploma and in 1997-1998 attended Malaspina University College to complete the 2 year program. From 1998 to 2003 Kevin was part of Engineering Department of TimberWest, Honeymoon Bay Operations.

As forestry technician of Khowutzun Forest Services (KFS), Kevin is responsible for organization and completion of all field engineering and mapping for both the Community Forest as well as various contract work. Kevin is currently working on the Community Forest five year Development Plan and the twenty year Plan. Kevin provides ongoing training in Engineering and Harvesting to KFS employees.

• Field Staff

Khowutzun Forest Services field staff is certified in several different areas.

Our silviculture crews are certified buckers and their supervisor is a certified faller. In total we have 8 certified buckers and 2 certified fallers. They received their British Columbia Ministry of Forests Chainsaw certification in July 2004.

12 KFS employees have completed training in how to use pesticide applicators in a forestry setting.

In addition 10 of our KFS employees have received their Danger Tree Assessor Certification for the Wildland Fire Safety Module also taken in July 2004.

We have the following courses completed in fire suppression:

• S-100 Basic Fire Suppression
• S-185 Fire Entrapment Avoidance and Fire Shelter Deployment
• S-212 Fire Communications
• S-232 Portable Water Pumps and Water Delivery Systems
• S-235 Burn Off and Back Fire
• S-230 Crew Boss
• ICS-100 Incident Command System
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods
• WHMIS

Our crew bosses for our fire crews have over 10 years experience fighting fires on the island and the mainland.

The KFS Silviculture crew has worked on contracts from Weyerhaeuser, BC Hydro, TimberWest and the Municipality of North Cowichan as well as many others.