Our People

Our People Inspire: Meet Kailee

Kalesnikoff silviculture, forest management, forest stewardship, tree planting, Woodlands department

Job title: Siviculture Supervisor and Geomatics Specialist

Years with Kalesnikoff: 4

Q: How would you describe a day in the life for you here at Kalesnikoff?

A: I spend the spring to fall visiting our previously harvested blocks to supervise various operations which include; tree planting, brushing, site preparation and surveying. I also visit our regenerating harvest areas to ensure they are healthy and doing well. If there are any issues with our young forests, I develop a plan and implement it in future years to ensure we get them back on track. In the winter, I work on planning future silviculture operations and a variety of projects helping to serve the Woodlands team. I also act as the Geomatics Specialist, assisting the Woodlands teams with their GIS needs (although they are all getting pretty good on their own) and I conduct more advanced GIS analysis to assist with decision-support and long term management objectives.

Q: What is your favourite part of the job?

A: My favorite thing about the company is that Kalesnikoff embodies sustainable forest management: We are a  value added mill, creating more jobs/ m³ of wood with our diversity of products and major investments in new products with Kalesnikoff Mass Timber. We have a deep commitment to our community and our team goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure we collaborate and create constructive relationships with stakeholders and the public. We contribute to research initiatives and invest in state of the art technologies to continue to improve our knowledge of the forests and our management practices. Kalesnikoff does all this to ensure that we are doing what is best for our forests from an ecological, social and economic perspective.

Q: What made you choose to go into his industry?

A: I grew up going on family canoe trips and spending countless weekends at my family cabin with no power, running water and only the forests for a playground. At a young age I was fascinated with all the trees, rocks, plants and animals that lived in the buggy boreal forests of northwestern Ontario. When I learned more about Forestry and that you could go to school and make a career out of managing the forests, I just knew that was what I wanted to do someday…