21st Century Forest Ecology

«Status quo thinking no longer applies when it comes to forestry. As the world’s climate, weather and ecosystems are rapidly changing, we need new ways of thinking, by Learning from the Past to create actual sustainable 21st Century Nature Based Solutions. »
~ Erik Piikkila

Positively Changing the World's Forests. One Branch, Tree, Shrub, Nurse Log, & Habitat at a Time.

Erik Piikkila is a Forest and Watershed Ecosystem Ecologist based on Vancouver Island in Western Canada. He is most comfortable among Old Growth trees and has been known to speak to them.

Whether you're looking for a Tree Nerd, a Forest Encyclopedia, a Forest and Watershed Ecologist, one of the Ologies*, or Forestry Solutions:

Ecosystem Decoder can help you find a Nature Based Solution.

He is also more Forestry than it appears, so he is happy to discuss Forestry and Economics.

He has performed nearly every Woods Job: Timber Cruising, Cutblock & Road Layout, Tree Falling & Bucking, Driving a Wheeled Skidder & Setting Chokers, Tree Spacing, Pruning, Brushing, & Planting, Thousands of Hectares of Silviculture Surveys, Contract Admin of Silviculture Activity Contracts (Planting, Brushing, Spacing, & Pruning), Harvesting (Logging) Inspections, Post Harvesting (Logging) Inspections (checking results against Logging Plan & Silviculture Prescriptions & Maps), and Silviculture Milestone Inspections (Harvest Completion, Regn Delay, & Free Growing).

He has a Forest Worker Recruitment and Retention Message:

"I need more loggers like my Grandpa and Dad who were master Tree Fallers, and more foresters and forest technicians. I need all of the smarts and know how of today's forest workers to do Ecological Forestry that is harder and more expensive to do!

Loggers need all of their skills and knowledge to arrive home safe everyday. We need their skills and knowledge so that forest ecosystems and all of the species can arrive home safe too"

"It's all about what does each ecosystem need? What parts are missing?: the Stand Level Structural Elements or Ecological Processes? What do we need to retain (Big Old Live Trees, Big Old Dead Trees, Patches of Trees, & Downed Logs, at the very least), & what species are missing, especially Old Growth Dependent Species? These are many of the questions we have to ask before we think about cutting any trees"

"If we have to cut any trees: It will be the Right Tree, Cut for the Right Reasons, in the Right Place, and at the Right Time!!"

Erik's Bio

* Ologies may include but are not limited to: Forest, Old Growth, Landscape, Fire, Wildlife, & Aquatic Ecology

Education | Publications | Media | Conferences | Volunteering

“Learning from the Past, to Understand the Present, so We can Plan and Predict the Future.” = Ecosystem Decoding

Knowledge Streams

First Nations Traditional Ecological Knowledge

14,000 years of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Why wouldn't the rest of us want to draw on this place based, long term (understatement: centuries & millennia), & ecosystem knowledge? This Indigenous Knowledge is also called Two Eyed Seeing.

Old Growth Forest Ecosystems

This is the baseline information, clean code, and genetic bank for future restoration. We must protect this Ecological Bank Account!! What can Old Growth Ecosystems tell us about the Past, Present, and Future?

Western Ecological Science

We have at least 70 years of accumulated science. But realistically we can go back into the 1800s and the development of theories on Evolution and Natural Selection. Ecosystem Science over the past 70+ years is also well developed. Western science has brought you: Forest, Old Growth Watershed, Landscape, Fire, Aquatic, & Wildlife Ecology. And new sciences like Canopy Ecology.

Colonial Forest Management

After 180 years of Colonial Management, we don't really know the full extent and impacts this management regime (plan & implement only) has had on forests, watersheds, landscapes, habitat, and species such as Old Growth Dependent Species. We don't understand singular factors or impacts let alone cumulative impacts and effects.

Cumulative Effects, Fragmentation, & Habitat Loss

Only recently have landscape and ecosystem impacts been acknowledged let alone measured as singular impacts or multiple impacts.

21st Century Ecosystem & Climate Challenges

Ecosystem, Ecological Processes, Ecological Goods and Services, & Habitat Degradation, Damage, and Destruction from Extractive Industries while Climate and Global Warming Impacts amplify Droughts, Atmospheric Rivers, Larger and More Intense Storms, Unprecedented & Catastrophic Wildfires.

* Footnote to background photo: Standing on Springboards. Erik's grandfather Toivo is on left of the photo in 1926.