Coast wood used for Olympic podium

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Wood from Sechelt’s community forest was used to build an Olympic medal podium that will be used in Whistler during the 2010 Games.

An Olympic podium, which will be used at Whistler Olympic Park, has been fashioned from wood donated by the Sunshine Coast Community Forest.

“Our community forest is an important economic driver to the District of Sechelt and the entire Sunshine Coast, providing jobs for our local workers and businesses while operating the forest in accordance with the values of our community,” Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster said in a press release. “It is an honour to have Olympians standing on wood harvested from our community.”

The community forest, which is owned by the District of Sechelt, covers 10,790 ha, and is managed by a volunteer board of directors.

The podium has been assembled from 227 wooden pieces and measures 619 cm long, 185 cm deep, and 60 cm at its tallest point. It will be used for the team biathlon, Nordic combined and ski jump events. The podium is made from Coastal western red cedar, British Columbia’s official tree, which can live for more than 1,000 years and grow to more than 60m tall and more than 2m in diameter.

“It was a pleasure to go into the forest and help hand pick the trees that we harvested for the podium project,” said Ron Casey, owner of Ron Casey Contracting Ltd.

Tom Dolker, owner of Sunshine Coast Forest Products Ltd., milled the logs into lumber for the project.

“The cedar used for this podium showcases the high value products that can be made from sustainably harvested wood from the Sunshine Coast Community Forest,” he said. “Our company is proud to have supplied the lumber for this podium.”

To construct the podium, the rough lumber was converted to panels at Metro Vancouver’s Bayview Mill-works, and then cut into complex shapes using computer-controlled machinery at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Advanced Wood Processing. The shapes were assembled at RONA’s Vancouver 2010 Fabrication Shop, a community-based training centre that teaches carpentry skills to new Canadians and at-risk youth.

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