Today was a rainy and windy ride up the east coast of Graham Island. We drove from Queen Charlotte up through the coastal communities of Tlell, Port Clements and finally to Masset and Old Masset. It is about an hour and a half, more like two hours and we had very high winds that were pushing the car on the road quite extensively. We picked up the remaining member of the crew, my new roommate Liz- a forestry student from Lakehead University in Ontario. We're very similar in our passions, ideas about forestry and I think it will be a very harmonious roommate situation. Our program director's partner Tyler was our tour guide for the day and informed us about the history of the islands, the major forestry companies, the best place to camp, where to surf, etc. When driving through the Old Masset reservation was able to point out the new longhouses being built, when certain poles were erected, where the Chief lives, where the Council meets... there was no better way to drive through town.
Tonight was a treat to say the least. We had our formal welcoming dinner with all the board of directors for the program as well as us students. The experience was overwhelming but in a very positive and humbly way. I felt very welcomed and was excited to be in a room with such shakers and movers in terms of Forestry on Haida Gwaii. For example the district manager of Haida Gwaii for the Ministry of Forests was our host with his wife and they were extremely warm. To be welcomed into the home of and have him genuinely care and express interest in us students was outstanding and an experience that can never be recreated. He will be talking to the class on Wednesday as a guest lecturer and I'm very excited to hear his opinions on the future of forestry in BC and on the islands specifically. Another member of the board is Keith Moore who runs a private environmental forestry consulting company in Queen Charlotte and is an RPF who has been a resident of the islands for many many years. Although I did not spend much time talking personally with them I am very excited for future interactions that we will no doubt have. There were many board members there with extensive and impressive careers and lives and it felt so nice to think that they had dedicated so much time to make this program happen. I think any forestry student at UBC would kill for the opporunitity to spend one-on-one time with the district manager and the president of a successful forestry consulting firm. I feel very blessed.
Another two highlight members that stood out for me were the major of Queen Charlotte, who not only came and spent the night getting to know us but baked a cheesecake for desert. I've never bet the Mayor of any place I've ever lived, let alone the third night I'm in town!

the 2010 crew

Finally, the most exciting person tonight for me (even though everyone was absolutely amazing in their own rights) was Severn Cullis-Suzuki. I felt like I was chatting casually with one of my role models and idols. She has accomplished so much in her life and has been such a strong advocate for conservation since such a young age, I really feel like if I can accomplish even half of what she has done for this field than I will be proud. She finished a masters in ethnoecology and TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) which is a field I am so interested in and feel like I want to pursue more aggressively in terms of education and jobs in the future. I wanted to just pick her brain but I also felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of interesting people and fascinating, passionate intellectuals that it was difficult to be an aggressive talker. I'm really looking forward to other opportunities where I can speak with her...she is such a role model that it is crazy to think she is on the board of directors for the program I'm in. I think if i join the local conservation group I will be able to interact with her on a more comfortable basis. I guess for someone else it is the equivalent of meeting a celebrity, that is how I felt tonight and I know that none of these people would ever see it that way.

I am so excited for this program it is unreal. Classes start tomorrow and there will be a lot of reading to do but the weather isn't so hot right now so it is perfect time to cuddle up with our course packs and get acquainted with the history of Forestry on the islands. I have a feeling that this is going to be the most meaningful school experience to date... I think that I might just never leave.