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The Wood Innovation Group
TWIG is building connections across BC’s wood value chain—from forest to finished product. Through events, workshops, and community gatherings, we create space for learning, exchange, and collaboration—helping lay the groundwork for wood products that reflect the strength and potential of a complete BC value system.
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This newsletter is dedicated to those who see potential in BC’s forest resources and want to be part of shaping what comes next—through creativity, design, hands-on work, or new ways of thinking. It’s about blending tradition with technology and contributing to a more resilient, locally rooted forest economy.
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Your voice matters. If you have events, projects, or ideas to share, reach out to us at info@twigbca.ca
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Wood-First-Wednesday
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June 4th 2nd, 6:00 - 8:00
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Steamworks Mount Pleasant, 2275 Main St, Vancouver,
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The Vancouver group meets again for its regular gathering at a local craft brewery More Info+
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Sea-2-Sky Wood Network
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Wall Street Woodworks, 2133 Wall St.Squamish Valley
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The Squamish group is to the proporty of local woodworker Daniel Wall More Info+
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More info for these events will be expanded on below, and the up-to-date TWIG events can be found online at twigbc.ca/events/
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Summer Is Near – and So Are More TWIG Gatherings!
As we shift from spring into summer, TWIG’s programming changes with the seasons. Warmer days and longer evenings mean more opportunities to connect outdoors—whether it’s gathering at a local venue with a sunny patio, walking through the forest, or sharing stories over a BBQ.
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A warm welcome to all our new subscribers who found us through last month’s packed Timber Tech Connect event at Kindred Construction. If you missed it, don’t worry—a full video of the event will be available in the coming months so you can catch up on what you missed.
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This month’s newsletter is short and sweet, including the final piece in our Innovation x Culture series, Imagining a New Future for BC's Value-Added Wood Industry. If you haven’t had a chance to dive in yet, you’ll find links to all previous installments below. It’s a series we’re proud of, and we hope it sparks thought and conversation as we continue to build a stronger wood culture in BC.
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Thanks for being part of the TWIG community!
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With forest-felt regards,
Patrick Christie and The TWIG team
info@twigbc.ca
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Crafting Identity Through Community and Networks
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We are closing out this series of articles exploring the intersection of innovation and culture to offer a different perspective on how BC’s value-added wood industry might grow and evolve. We were moved to investigate this topic through writing because we believe in the human side of innovation—how people, their values, skills, creativity, ingenuity, and relationships are what truly make innovation possible. Too often, conversations around innovation focus solely on technology, metrics, markets, and trends. While these are important, in BC we need something more to create meaningful change—we need a cultural shift.
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In the previous article, we explored how innovation and sustainability can be deeply cultural—driven not just by tools or environmental performance, but by people, values, and shared meaning. This final piece grounds those ideas in place. If BC is to foster a renewed wood culture, we must also strengthen the social foundations that support it: communities, networks, and shared identities. It’s through community that knowledge is kept alive, passed on, and transformed. And it’s through the connection between people, land, and material that culture takes root.
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Encouraging Community-Building Through Wood-Based Identity
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A renewed wood culture in BC requires participation—people learning, making, sharing, and exploring together. In today’s globally connected world, we’re constantly exposed to events and ideas from afar: new styles, technologies, movements, and crises. While this global flow brings many benefits, it also risks severing us from local relationships—from the people, materials, and ecosystems immediately around us.
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Historically, community was rooted in shared geography—breathing the same air, drinking the same water, walking the same trails. While many urban settlers in BC haven’t experienced this kind of place-based living—partly due to the province’s relatively young age—it remains central to Indigenous Nations across the land. Their cultures are deeply woven into the ecosystems they inhabit, reflecting the diversity of BC’s forests and bioregions. Their languages, art, tools, and histories are all tied back to the land.
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To shape a meaningful wood identity for BC, it must reflect that diversity. Building community around wood means creating space for people from all walks of life to engage with it—through design, craft, forest recreation, architecture, and daily life. It also means inviting existing communities to explore how wood and forests intersect with the work they’re already doing. Participation in the forest-based economy doesn’t need to be limited to logging and manufacturing. It can take shape wherever the forest is seen not just as a resource, but as a place that contributes to livelihoods, creativity, and well-being.
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Wood touches our lives in countless, often invisible ways—from musical instruments and buildings to the trails we walk and the tools we use. In Scandinavia and Japan, wood is deeply embedded in the built environment and everyday life. That visibility cultivates connection. In BC, we need to find ways to bring people closer to wood—to what’s being made, where it’s coming from, and the forests that make it possible.
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Cultivating Networks and Communities of Practice
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Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It grows through relationships between people, disciplines, and generations. To renew BC’s wood culture, we must strengthen the social foundations that make transformative innovation possible. One powerful lens for this work is the concept of a Community of Practice (CofP): a group of people connected by shared learning, mutual trust, and a long-term commitment to a domain of knowledge.
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Across BC, many individuals and organizations are working toward a more just and innovative forestry future—but too often, these efforts exist in silos. We host conferences and events that bring people together, but after the applause fades, the dynamic energy often dissipates. What’s needed are platforms that function more like living systems: adaptive, ongoing spaces where diverse voices continuously intersect, share knowledge, and experiment with new ways of working together.
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At TWIG, we see ourselves as part of a growing community of practice—a living, evolving network committed to a sustainable, high-value future. We are not a single organization with a singular solution. We are a hub: a shared infrastructure for learning, connection, trust-building, and creative collaboration across the value chain. Building on over a decade of history, we’ve expanded our networks to Squamish and Victoria, and continue to offer relevant programming—both online and in person—to support the social and professional needs of our diverse community.
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If you’re curious to learn more about Communities of Practice in the context of forests and livelihoods, we recommend this paper co-authored by the team at Pilot Projects, a Montreal-based systems and design partnership focused on creating sustainable solutions to complex global, urban, and ecological challenges.
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From Value Chains to Value Systems
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If we want to shift BC’s wood industry, we must begin at its roots—not with tools or technology, but with trust, relationships, and shared purpose. The answers won’t come from any one sector alone. We need spaces where Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices can meet respectfully, where makers and researchers can share practice, and where policy and culture can inform each other. A renewed wood culture is not something we build alone—it’s something we co-create.
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TWIG is evolving to meet this challenge. As we transition to a non-profit, we aim to deepen our role as connective tissue across BC and beyond—supporting community-led chapters, expanding our networks, and hosting gatherings that encourage cross-disciplinary connections and action. We’re building a living value system—a dynamic, non-linear model rooted in people, place, and practice—not just a value chain. Drawing from models around the world, and grounded in Indigenous leadership here at home, we’re assembling a new kind of infrastructure: a Community of Practice that prioritizes creativity, cultural continuity, collaborative learning, and regenerative outcomes.
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The tools exist, and the knowledge is here. What’s needed now is a social foundation that invites participation, fosters belonging, and makes space for new stories to emerge. This is the future we imagine—and it starts with us, together.
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If you’ve been reading this series, consider this your invitation to join, contribute, and help shape a wood culture that reflects the richness of this beautiful place we call British Columbia.
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---> You can find a link to the PDF of the previous articles HERE
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Tour @ Wall Street Woodworks
June 4th, 6-8pm
2133 Wall Street, Squamish Valley
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Free | By Donation
Food + Drinks
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For our June gathering, the Sea to Sky Wood Network is heading up the Squamish Valley to visit Daniel Wall at Wall Street Woodworks. Daniel is a retired woodworker with a deep appreciation for local wood species and natural processes such as spalting. His work appears throughout the corridor, including at the local monastery.
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This special visit offers a chance to walk Daniel’s property, explore a variety of tree species growing on the land, and tour the outbuildings he’s repurposed for gardening, wood drying, and making. We’ll also visit his woodshops, hear stories from past projects, and learn more about the thoughtful, resourceful approach he brings to his practice.
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It’s a rare opportunity to connect with someone who has spent decades in close relationship with the land, the wood, and the work.
Getting there: Head up the Squamish Valley Road and take the left fork at Cheekye, continuing 14km on Squamish Valley Road, then turn right on Wall Street. Look for the TWIG signs.
To learn more about Daniel and watch a video filmed by S2S organizer Lenny Rubenovitch, visit the link here
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***All S2S events and information can be found online at twigbc.ca/s2s
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Are you looking to hire someone? Do you have a new position opening up at your company? Let us know, and we can make a posting here to share it with our readers.
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Expanding Connections Across BC
TWIG is always looking to grow—through regional networks, project tours, new partnerships, and collaborations that support BC’s evolving wood industry. While we currently operate in Squamish, Victoria, and Vancouver, we’re eager to connect with individuals and organizations in other regions—from the Interior to Northern BC, the Sunshine Coast, and beyond—who want to help shape the future of wood innovation where they live and work.
If you're in the industry and want to host an event at your space, talk about a product or service we can help make that happen.
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Whether you’re interested in hosting events, organizing tours, sharing your work, or building community through shared goals, we’d love to hear from you.
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Contact us at info@twigbc.ca and let’s explore what’s possible together.
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Donate to TWIG
At TWIG, we believe the best connections happen informally—and that innovation grows when new relationships are formed. That’s why we keep some of our events free, open, and easy to join.
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To keep this going—and for our funding model to work—we rely on financial contributions from the industry. Your support not only keeps the wheels turning but also shows that the work we do matters.
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If TWIG has offered you connections, inspiration, or opportunities, we invite you to show your support. Every contribution makes a difference.
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Got an idea? Need some Testing?
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Do you have a concept, product, or prototype that you want to realize? TWIG can work with you to make this happen with financial support through The Wood First Program. Carried out through the Center for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) and its team of technical staff, we are able to provide an array of support on various wood-based projects.
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