Canada is home to nine per cent of the world's forests, with more hectares of greenery per person than any other nation on earth. And yet our production of wood products often lags behind that of other countries, and we've been slow to adopt new construction technologies that allow timber to be used in place of steel in tall buildings.

On Thursday, September 26, the Daniels Faculty will host Forest Culture, a panel discussion that will consider the state of Canada's forests from three very different perspectives.

Dan Handel, an architect who has curated exhibitions on the meanings of wood and forests for institutions in Canada and around the world, will discuss forestry from a cultural standpoint. Stephanie Seymour, an Anishinaabe-kwe from Garden River First Nation who is conducting PhD research in forest science at Lakehead University, will come at the subject from an Indigenous angle. Representing the forestry profession will be Scott Jackson, a former policy manager for the Ontario Forest Industry Association who is now the director of Indigenous and stakeholder relations at the not-for-profit Forests Ontario, which advocates for forest restoration and stewardship.

The evening's discussion will be moderated by Brigitte Shim, who in addition to being a professor at the Daniels Faculty is also a consumer of architectural wood products at her private practice, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects.

Forest Culture is part of Hindsight is 20/20, the Daniels Faculty's 2019-2020 public programming series. More details about this event and others in the series can be found on the faculty's website.

Image: "The Forest Community: Sovereign, Subject, Trees," Dan Handel