Professionals Making A Difference
Anthony Britneff has spent an entire career with the Ministry of Forests and Range. Starting as a summer student in the late 1960s, Anthony is one of the few remaining PEA members who was in a professional position since the PEA’s inception. A valued member of the Association, Anthony retired in late March from the BC Government.
What is your profession? I’m a Forester – most recently the Forest Health Officer for the provincial forest health program. In its simplest terms, the program is primarily about monitoring the health of forests for diseases and insect infestations. The program concerns itself with ensuring the forests remain healthy, and that there are no potential health risks to residents wishing to enjoy these forests’ natural beauty.
How long were you with the Ministry? When I retired at the end of March, I was in my 40th year with the forest service. 
What kind of jobs did you have? I started off as a Compassman in the summer of 1969 and then again in 1970. The camps were a great way to see a lot of landscapes that you would normally take a vacation or expedition to see – I remember seeing the Northern Lights when camped on Radar Hill outside Fort Nelson and just being in awe of what I was watching. For the summer of 1971, I was promoted to Tallyman and worked from a camp at the old ranger station at Echo Bay and from the Forest Surveyor, the largest vessel in the forest service fleet.
What were the camps like? They were predominantly male and the base-camp tents reminded you of the set of M*A*S*H (the show actually borrowed our tents one year to use as props for a shoot near Cache Creek), but otherwise were very different from one another. Because we were in such different environments, our equipment changed as the locale dictated. For example, when I worked in the northeast, we used a lot of rafts and floatplanes, whereas on the coast, we would use boats and helicopters.
What was your first full time role with MoFR? When I graduated from the University of New Brunswick, I was offered a job as a Classifier, which was the job for recent graduates. It was exciting, especially as it was my first winter with the Ministry. During my first few years, I was camped on a barge on the newly formed (and fairly controversial) Williston Lake and in Creston on land beside the Goat River. It was also my first opportunity to work in an office in Victoria.
What was your office like? We called the office the bullpen. It was very different from today’s Ministry offices. It was full of tobacco smoke. We only had one phone which we were allowed to use for 15 minutes in the morning, one hour at lunch, and another 15 minutes in the afternoon. All phone-related business was done through the supervisor. Every written document was circulated by paper and we had to date stamp it upon arrival to ensure we were following through with the memo in a timely fashion. Even the storage room was under strict control – we had to sign out pencils! It was a very paramilitary organization. That being said, we were one of the first offices to have a photocopier and an office computer.
Can you tell us a little more about your work experience with the Ministry? Well, shortly after forest surveying I worked in destructive sampling and then became a Field Supervisor for mill studies. We were researching lumber recovery factors. I was the Field Supervisor for that program under Julius Juhasz for three years and was able to see almost every corner of the province. Following that, I was an Assistant Supervisor of inventory camps in the Interior classifying management units for Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs). We would bring in specialists around the country and classify for soil, recreation, water, and wildlife habitat. It was a very forward thinking project. After that, I went on to get my Master’s in Public Administration at UVic.
Did you take any time off from the MoFR after your MPA? No, I came back to work with the Inventory Branch which, at that time, was pioneering in GIS applications for forestry. We moved our mapping technology to an exclusively digital platform. We worked with equipment from NASA to develop the digital mapping. As the Reports Officer, I worked on developing a PC-based system for reporting the inventory database. The program was acclaimed by everyone in the Ministry who used it, and I won an Employee Suggestion Award from the BC Government – probably the top cash award any BC public servant can receive – for moving inventory statistical reporting from the IBM mainframe to the PC.
That must have been a career highlight for you. Well, yes, but not the ultimate highlight. After the 2002 downsizing, the government stripped out funding for the silviculture and forest health programs. For a short while, I kept the seat warm as the provincial Forest Establishment Officer until the government came to its senses and started the Forests For Tomorrow program. Then, after the forest health program was repatriated to the forest service, I was asked if I would lead and rebuild it. It was a huge challenge made the easier thanks to a fantastic team of talented professionals, but definitely the highlight of my career and a great capstone to my work history.
Has there been any other career highlights you’d like to share with us? If I leave a contribution to any legacy it would be my small role on the Old Growth Strategy as a Ministry representative. That strategy led to the protected areas we know today. Immediately after my work with the forest health program, I was involved with climate change and forest carbon files, both of which are subjects that have interested me for some time. I was glad to have that opportunity.
What kept you in the forestry industry for so long? I’ve always enjoyed the people I work with. The forest service has had a vast range of characters from eccentric to very conservative. I’ve never been unhappy with what I was doing. I’ve always woken up energized and wanting to go to work.
The forests service itself, in retrospect, should always be in the forefront of British Columbia. We are a forests-based culture and I like to think that that culture is still alive in our urban centres like Vancouver and Victoria. We have pioneered a lot in my time with the forests service, but it’s because we’ve wanted to grow our understanding of forest ecology that we have been able to evolve and manage for the variety of forest values other than timber.
Shifting thoughts a little, can you remember what the inception of the PEA was like? I remember the inaugural meeting with Geoff Holter, the first Executive Director of the PEA, and Wally Ross, of the USW, and how strange a meeting it was. We were a very conservative group of professionals in tweed jackets, pressed pants, and polished leather shoes. I remember there were quite a few questions from skeptics relating the idea of organizing to the issues of the time surrounding the cold war. Wally Ross gave a barn-burner of a speech embellished with fist–pounding. When we formed the PEA, us younger fellas were much more open-minded towards embracing the union.
What has life been like outside of work? I have a keen interest in bird watching and I’m looking forward to doing that more frequently. Mountaineering was a huge interest of mine and I raced sailboats for 19 years. One of my favourite activities has been building various genres of libraries. If you look around my home, there isn’t a room that isn’t full of books. I have a number of book collections including what I am certain is one of the province’s finest collection of classic children’s literature. I love to go back and read a favourite book from childhood and I look forward to doing that more often now that I am retired.
What are you planning to do during your retirement? I will be taking it easy and spending time with my wife and two children until at least September. After that, I will read the political winds.
