Just Folks
Malcolm Graham, Forester
JOHN MAHONEY
Malcolm Graham is a 3-Villages boy, now equally at home on the shallow waters of southern Quebec's Tomifobia River or the glaciers of the Cambrian ice field in northern British Columbia.
He is an environmentalist in the best sense of the word -- Graham heads a forestry consulting company that supervises large-scale reforestation efforts, is an avid fly fisherman, and has the keen eye of a devoted nature photographer.
"I spend a lot of time in the bush, working or fishing," he says, "and I encounter lots of wildlife. I've been surrounded by five wolves -- I have the photos!, had a close encounter with a grizzly bear, and have also been fortunate enough to see a rare Kemode bear in the wild."
"The Kemode, a white bear that looks like a small polar bear, is actually a subspecies of the black bear. They are only found in British Columbia in the Terrace area, and on some islands in the Alaska panhandle."
Graham grew up in Rock Island, Quebec, -- on the Vermont border, near Derby line -- and graduated from Stanstead College in 1976. He studied forestry at Scotland's Aberdeen University, then relocated to British Columbia in 1980.
Like a lot of young Canadians who head West, he paid his dues as a tree planter which is hard, sweaty work. He moved up to become a supervisor and travelled extensively throughout the province.
In 1990, Graham formed Craigievar Forest Services Ltd. His company administers and supervises tree planting contracts -- some 2-3 million trees each year -- and employs six to eight people during the April-October planting season.
He also says he spends a lot of time in the air -- in small fixed-wing airplanes or helicopters -- "scoping out areas to be surveyed." Silviculture surveys of logged-over areas to "determine the extent of regeneration" is part of his stock-in-trade.
Graham is still a border boy, both in heart and in reality: he recently moved to Terrace, B.C., near the Alaska border town of Hyder. Malcolm Graham's Photographs are temporarily off-line. Sorry about that.
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