Residents of the Williams Lake area will see helicopters in the air this week as the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations implements its treatment plan to minimize the spread of Douglas-fir bark beetles on Crown land through selective heli-logging.

The Province has extended the reduced fee in place for log exports in the Mid-Coast Timber Supply Area until June 2018 to support forestry jobs in the area.

Canadians will be better equipped for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow as a result of a $13.8-million investment in the College of New Caledonia for a new heavy-mechanical trades-training facility.

Two First Nations communities on Vancouver Island and one on the Central Coast stand to benefit from support from B.C.’s First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund, a program launched by the provincial government in 2010.

The B.C. government has committed more than $45,000 for a new partnership project with manufacturers in the province’s North Central region to help identify their labour needs.

A mix of 250 importers, distributors, builders, developers, designers and architects were on hand as Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Steve Thomson welcomed delegates to the second-annual Sino-Canada Wood Conference in Shanghai.