By Gary Schneider

For more years than I care to remember, people have been asking me about my legacy.  Besides making me feel very old, it was a valid question.  I’d started Macphail Woods in 1991 and for better or worse had been its public face.  Many organizations and businesses run into problems when that public face is no longer there. 

My response has always been that when I retired Macphail Woods would be in great hands – younger hands that were more skilled and better trained than I had ever been. 

While I haven’t retired quite yet – I’m still working three days a week – it was time for someone else to take over the leadership role. 

Most of you will know Eric Edward – whose picture graces this blog – from a variety of encounters.  Eric has been co-directing the Macphail Woods project with me for some years now and is now has officially become the Director of Macphail Woods.  Eric has been integral part of our success for decades.  He developed and still teaches our great chainsaw safety courses and for years he has diligently worked with schools and teachers across the Island to bring nature education into classrooms.  He has also stayed busy managing staff, expanding our children’s program, heading our forest restoration work, operating our bandsaw mill, carrying out plantings at many Island schools, filling nursery orders, planting trees, collecting seed, transplanting seedlings, developing funding proposals, leading owl prowls and other workshops, and a carrying out a myriad of other tasks.

In his latest incarnation, Eric has been developing a series of educational videos on Island forests.  These will be released quite soon and I think you’ll be impressed with the quality of his filmmaking work.

Eric started at Macphail Woods as a high school student in 1998.  I knew his family, that  they had a lovely forest in Belfast and that they were familiar with forestry work and caring for woodland.  We had few employees at that time, certainly none that were full time, and we had little money.  We couldn’t outcompete other employers by paying high salaries.  I expected this to just be summer work for Eric and then he would move on to bigger and better things.

One winter Eric told me that he was going to study at the Culinary Institute after we’d finished our summer work, so that he could have year-round employment – Macphail Woods during the growing season and cooking during the rest of the year.  Knowing Eric’s interest in food, I thought it was a brilliant idea.  I knew he would make a great chef.  But come September, Eric was still digging trees.  When I asked him if his plans had changed, he said: “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be working than at Macphail Woods.”

It almost brings tears to my eyes just to type that.  I think the world of Eric and am absolutely sure that he will continue showing great leadership and elevating Macphail Woods to even greater heights.

Eric and his entire family have been a key part of the success of Macphail Woods.  I look forward to seeing us take the next step under his leadership.  And I couldn’t be prouder.