How extension enhances the knowledge and practice of innovative silviculture in British Columbia, Canada

The pressures facing natural resource sectors have grown in recent decades, especially as they intersect with Indigenous Rights and Title, environmental sustainability, and economic interests. In British Columbia (BC), Canada, forest management and forestry practices have come under significant scrutiny, largely sparked by the public opposition to the harvesting of old-growth forests, increasing severity of wildfires, economic declines in the forest industry, and the impacts of a changing climate. As the pace and scale of these challenges grow, the forest sector must be equipped to innovate and adapt. Here, we contribute our understanding of “how to do extension” in the forest sector and, building on an historical perspective of extension in BC and beyond, offer recommendations for how extension can support innovative silviculture in BC. Extension is a knowledge process that is practiced in five different forms: one-way knowledge sharing, two-way knowledge exchange, participatory exchange, co-produced knowledge generation, and anticipatory knowledge generation. The outcomes of extension include empowering individuals, organizations, and communities to collaborate and connect knowledge and practice to address complex forest-based challenges. Extension in innovative silviculture, and forestry in general, ensures that disconnected knowledge and scientific systems are bridged, providing pathways to help ensure applied research projects fill knowledge gaps for practitioners, and that forest planning and operations meaningfully identify and manage for multiple values.