AWP - Planning/Layout

ATCO Wood Products prides itself in efficient and accurate planning for sustainable forest management on crown and private lands. ATCO strives to be a responsible steward of the land, being innovative and adaptive when dealing with destructive forest agents (forest health and fire issues) as they arise. During the planning stage, ATCO's Forestry Management team prefers to go that 'extra mile', managing above minimum legislative requirements. We find this helps us achieve a high level of environmental performance and standards. The planning mechanism sets the stage to manage for the conservation of soil, air, water quality, biological diversity, wildlife, aquatic habitat, recreation and aesthetics. Having our own in-house GIS (digital mapping) department also plays a role in the efficiency of the planning stage.

ATCO Wood Products' goal is to extract the timber resource from the landbase in an efficient and timely manner while minimizing environmental impact. ATCO achieves this by having a layout team comprised of experienced and educated professional/technical staff and in-house consultants. With our expertise we are able to complete a majority of the field layout and assessments in-house in an accurate and efficient manner. Efficiency is gained by two means: 1) local knowledge of the area gained through years of experience, and 2) taking advantage of technological advancements in the industry (GPS, Vertex, data loggers, current software). For areas that fall outside our area of expertise, ATCO has built an arsenal of resource professional contacts that complete work in an efficient and timely manner.

To ensure the accuracy of each project plan with current legislation and resources issues each project is field reviewed by our signing foresters.

Once the field work and data collection is complete, the field data is compiled by our experienced and knowledgeable staff into digital format preferred by the Ministry of Forests, which ensures timely approvals when required.