Mushroom industry & BC forestry (interview)

Like many B.C. residents, I had often considered our forest industry, but never realized until today how it interacts with so many related industries. Today I spoke with Randy Marchand (KingMorel) of Enchanted Teak.

Randy is an outdoorsman who has prospected across Canada. He came to BC in 1988 in search of environmentally friendly work. After collecting mushrooms for local buyers, he was hooked, and still has a passionate interest in the subject. You can find several stories about his first hand experiences on his blog.

Randy:

It is important to promote alternative resources you can get out of forests - mushrooms are totally sustainable, you don't have to kill a tree to take the resources.

However, government refuses to regulate the industry, perhaps because it competes with the logging industry. Those days may soon be coming to an end, though: There is nothing left for them to harvest!

If you fly to Japan, you soon reach a great height, such that you can see much of Vancouver Island and the BC coast from the air. You will be outraged when you see that they have taken everything - there is nothing left! You will be thinking, What have they done?!

Most of the logging companies are not Canadian and do not care what is left here. It will hit BC hard, in both the logging and government sectors. Why let business carry on in this fashion, when it will make you redundant?

For example, professional foresters are mostly data scientists. They work for the government, figuring out sustainability numbers, etc. There used to be eight to ten thousand such positions; now there are hardly any (although union numbers have been kept up artificially by including technicians). Most are unemployed.

(Link to interview with Gerrard Olivotto)

>> CONTINUED

Background/reference:

Pablo, Carlito. "Logging companies look to flip forests in B.C." straight.com. July 24, 2008.

YellowPages.ca Logging companies, Vancouver, B.C.