The Ontario Advanced Forestry Program

Foresters use continuing professional education to keep abreast of new developments and adapt to changing job responsibilities. The demand for continuing professional education has grown recently in response to a public demand for forest management plans based on sound scientific principles and, as the level of involvement by diverse stakeholder groups has grown, foresters feel the need to increase their interpersonal effectiveness in complex, multi-perspective situations. In 1988, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources invited the School of Forestry at Lakehead University and the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto to collaborate to design and implement a program of two-week intensive courses for mid-career foresters and other resource managers. The program has been successful during its first three years at reaching its target client base and there are positive indications that the program's educational objectives are being fulfilled. This article details the design and early track record of the Ontario Advanced Forestry Program (OAFP) that resulted from that collaboration.