Ed Iskra recounts years in forestry during vocational talk

His first memorable event in worklife was the fire that destroyed the MNR building located at corner of King and Casimir where the new Service Canada building is now located. Thus he was pressed into service to sift through the frozen records and try and save as many as possible.

In 1977, Eskra got on permanently as forestry technician involved in firefighting, tree planting, and
timber cruising.

By 1982 Ed was doing aerial photography for the Ministry. He described taking pictures out of a small plane with a hole big enough to stick his camera out but not big enough to suck out his
whole body. 1982 year also saw a recession and many cutbacks in the MNR . As a result Iskra moved more into forestry management.

Ed described how this also led more heavily into the use of pesticide and herbicide in the forests and it found him involved in a 3 year environmental assessment regarding it’s use.

1992 saw another recession and a new job as integrated resource management technician. By1996, many jobs had been eliminated...and when they planned to eliminate his job, Ed
applied for the job of his recently departed boss...and became the Area Forester. This led to many years of involvement in Forest Management planning

Ed Iskra retired from the Ministry of Natural Resources a couple of years ago...but has been kept busy with projects at home, photography, and a recent return to part time work