In an industry that frequently seems as if it’s being assaulted on all fronts, Warren Roberts, co-owner of Wahkash Contracting Ltd. (with Dorian Uzzell and Rob Moretto), maintains an innate sense of optimism, derived partly from being the fifth generation of a family that has made a living in forestry. 

He says, “The industry has been great to me and my family, and I truly believe there will always be opportunities for people who get up in the morning wanting to work.” 

Roberts, 35, continues, “When I was growing up, I remember people trying to deter me from going into forestry, but I never saw it as a sunset industry. And today, when I watch my three-year-old son play with his toy chainsaw, I have a positive feeling about the future. 

“My dad, Matt, got his start in logging at 14, my mom Shelley grew up in a forestry family, and my fondest childhood memories were of my sister and I growing up in an Interfor logging camp in Knight’s Inlet.”  

Roberts brings a considerable amount of passion as well as expertise to Campbell River-based Wahkash, whose team harvests about 440,000 cubic metres of wood annually. “I’m very proud to be a part of this team,” he says. 

But Roberts wouldn’t be a bona fide forester if his trajectory hadn’t been affected by the occasional downturn, which in his case occurred during his teenage years, precisely when he intended to launch his career. “I had every intention of becoming a logger when I finished high school, but job prospects were pretty bleak a few years after I graduated, so I went to university in 2008, for two years at Malaspina College.” 

Roberts may have felt rudderless in the halls of academe, but his stint was life changing because it was there that he met his wife Shannon. “We met on the first day of school and the rest is history, and all because of an industry slowdown,” he says, laughing. 

Roberts’ determination to make logging a career was fortified by a year-long stint in northern BC and Alberta as an oil patch roughneck. “The work was definitely well paying, but the cost of living was high and people in the sector had a gold rush mentality,” he recalls. 

Roberts returned to Campbell River and hook tended for Wahkash; by his mid-20s he was running a grapple yarder. “It was my favourite job in the bush,” he says, adding that his two daughters and son lived in camp for the first few years of their lives: “Like me, they loved watching us work, fishing off the docks, and experiencing a truly west coast lifestyle.” 

When asked if he would want his children to eventually make forestry their careers, Roberts replies, “As my parents were with me, I try to be open-minded about what professions they choose. However, my son is obsessed with machines and calls all equipment ‘diggers’, so it would be awesome if he followed in my footsteps.” 

In 2016, Roberts became a co-owner of Wahkash after running grapple yarder for the company and assuming supervisory responsibilities. Today, he is also general manager of Atli Chip in Beaver Cove, a company that is 25 per cent owned by Wahkash and processes around 200,000 cubic metres of salvage fibre for coastal pulp mills. “It’s great to learn something new in a different niche of the industry,” he says. 

With a long future in forestry still ahead of him, Roberts again expresses a certain degree of confidence for the health of the industry overall. “I think it’s safe to say that logging will be different in the future, but we have two advantages: we’re used to adversity, and we can adapt to changing circumstances,” he says. “The need for logging will never go away, so there will always be opportunities for my kids if they choose, and for anyone wanting a unique way to earn a living.”