Canadian Wood Products Magazine

BC WOOD AT CEREMONIES

The world is seeing B.C. wood every time a medal ceremony is held at the on-going 2010 Winter Olympic games and the upcoming Paralympic games. The podiums at the Olympic venues are manufactured out of wood from three Northern B.C. community forests - the Cheslatta Community Forest, the District of Fort St. James Community Forest and Houston's Dungate Community Forest.

In total, 23 podiums were constructed from18 different wood types. Each podium requires more than 200 wood pieces. "We just saw the incredible excitement our communities felt when the torch came through the north," said Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad. "Now to know that a piece of our community is going to be centre stage during the games is incredible."
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Underwater lodge pole pine from the Nechako Reservoir was donated by the Cheslatta Community Forest. The wood will be used for the podium at the team biathlon and team cross-country medal celebrations at Whistler Paralympic Park. White Spruce was donated by the District of Fort St. James Community Forest for the cross-country skiing medal celebrations at Whistler Olympic Park. The Dungate Community Forest donated lodgepole pine for the podium at the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton medal celebrations at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The Winter Olympic Games will close this Sunday (Feb. 28), while the Paralympic games will run from March 12 to March 21.