paths

EVEN IN GRADE 10, Diana
Wood knew she didn’t want to be
trapped indoors, hunched over a
computer, She wanted to be out-
side.

That decision has ied to her cur-
rent position as co-owner of Ter-
race’s Woodima Forestry Ser-
vices Lid. Wood is one of only a
handful of women in a leadership
position in the forestry industry
today,

“IT don’t really think about
being a women in a male domi-
nated industry,” says Wood,
“I’m pretty thick skinned, so
things don’t bother me much.”

Wood started her career in
forestry at BCIT, graduating from
its Forest Resources Technology
program.

“7 liked the math and got inter-
ested in engincering — road de-
sign and harvest engineering,”
she says,

When she graduated from BCIT
she found she had to be assertive
in looking for a job, but landed a
position timber cruising with B.C,
Forest Products without much
difficulty,

Shortly after, Wood was offered
a posilion with Skeena Cellulose
on an engineering crew. -

- When the recession hit in 1982,

Wood. and others on the crew
were laid off. Then Skeena Cel-
lulose asked her and three other
crew members to come back to
do contract work, That crew
formed the basis for Woodima.

“We thought it was going to be
short term work, and then two
years later we realized it wasn’t
short term....We finally — in-
corporated in 1985,”’ she says.

“So we never picked each other
as partners. Skeena Cellulose just
said, ‘you four.’ '”

~ Since then one parmer has left,

A CO-OWNER af Woodima Forestry Services, Diana Wood has

DAay Sto 13,

been part of a growing company offering expertise in a number
of areas. She got her start by going to BCIT,

but Wood still has her two other
original partners, Stephen Hales
and Pat Kofoed,

“Tt seems to work obviously, or
we wouldn’t have stuck together
for 12 years."*

Woodima contracts almost ex-

clusively to Skeena Cellulose.

Wood and her partners survey
roads and boundaries, determine
what types of logging will be
used, do timber cruising and pre-
harvesting silviculture prescrip-
tions (PHSPs),

Staff has grown to five full time
office staff and 14 field crew
members, plus Wood, Hale and
Kofoed,

The growth in staff also al-
lowed Wood to take time off in
the late 1980s and early 90s to
have children.

“I really appreciated the op-
portunity to slow down, and

spend time at .home ~with may

Kids," 0

But Wood was still able to work
part-time hours, keeping 2 hand
in the bosiness. It’s a working ar-
rangement she was grateful for,
and might not have been able to
arrange, had she been working for
another company.

Now that her children are a
little older, Wood is concentrat-
ing on the next step in her career
— becoming a Registered Profes-
sional Forester.

“There aren’t many women in
the courses, maybe two or three
out of 30, but it hasn’t been much
of a problem, I don’t think the
men worry about it.”’

As for the future of Woodima,
Wood predicts the company will
remain small. She and her part-
ners prefer to keep a close eye on
the day to day aspects of the busi-

e538, ;

“And I enjoy getting out in the

bush. -I- don’t: want to give that . J.

up: Be rts

rosperity for _
the Northwest &

orest Products
for the world...

NATIONAL FOREST
WEEK - MAY 8 - 13

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 1U, 1995 - D3

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