Local Company Grows Despite Forestry Downturn: KBM Resources Inc
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Local Company Grows Despite

Local Company Grows Despite Forestry Downturn: KBM Resources Inc

 

by Scott A. Sumner
    KBM started as a company in 1968 when the partners got together as KBM  Forestry. Over the years it has grown and followed the forestry industry. They started to do so much more mining work that it was decided to change their name to KBM Resources. In addition KBM Sales
provides quality equipment and technical support for people who are out working in the woods.


   The partners of KBM Resources Inc are primarily foresters. The forestry industry boomed for many decades and the company started out mostly in reforestation and advising companies on rehabilitation, maximizing forest yields, how to protect sensitive sites, how to plant and restock areas. The company has now broadened out to become one of the top national experts in forestry and rehabilitation. KBM Resources now operates Canada wide as well as in the US and other countries around the world. There still are lots of forestry operations and there is a need for people who have skills in aerial photography analysis, providing digital mapping, forest inventories and providing governments and the companies with information on the ecological sensitivities.

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    “ It is a testimony to KBM that they survived the downturn in forestry to adapt to mining and all the other forms of resource development including the new alternative energies especially water,
solar, wind and so on. KBM is a model company that has gone from 12 people at the bottom of the recession to 33 people now, essentially now hiring about 1 new person per month and doing work from coast to coast to coast. You have to adapt or you don't survive,” said Ken Boschoff, Senior Environmental Consultant for KBM Resources Inc. “ Many mining companies are finding the skill set they need here at KBM with our two airplanes, state of the art digital cameras, on site aerial photography analysis all with modest costs because we are located here. KBM has invested heavily in new equipment and provide fantastic quality.”


    The KBM Resources Inc.  owners are Peter Higgelke and Laird Van Damme. Recently they have added 5 full partners. These new partners are Arnold Rudy (GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing), Brad Chaulk (Photo Interpretation and Project Management), Ian Gillies (Flight Operations and Airborne Data Collection), Shawn Mizon (Photogrammetry and GIS), and Stephane Audet (Field Operations and Renewable Resources). Each of these partners bring a wealth of proven experience to the firm as they move into new areas of service.

  KBM is located in two buildings on Mooney Street down from the Greyhound Bus Terminal and the new Leon’s. The company is state of the art with new technology. For instance KBM Sales sell  GPS’s but also provide instruction and servicing that is only available here from Winnipeg to Toronto. If you need student equipment they have it, they will keep you warm and you won’t get lost, noted Ken Boshcoff.

 

   “ Right now the firm is doing a business analysis for many projects for municipalities who want to take their resources to the next level by finding investors and determining the value of the wood supply they have available. If they need assistance with government navigation though Federal and Provincial requirements and technical analysis in general we can help. The aerial photography helps immensely in terms of community planning and environmental protection. We analyze the forest cover and tree cover in municipalities as well as undertake parks and natural resource plans to provide detailed wood supply by species. All of these projects are on the go as we speak. The planes will fly all summer as soon as the leaves  are on the tees.” said Ken Boshcoff , who is a government navigation specialist to help people through the intricacies of governmental permitting, understanding legislation, government funding and making sure people know how to proceed on to the next step stage.

   Stephane Audet, Partner with KBM, age 34, attended Lakehead University and has a Forestry Degree starting with KBM right after school. “ This company started as operation services to the MNR in scarification. We were one of the first ones on the scene doing scarification and bought a lot of new Swedish scarification equipment to use as well as became a distributor here in Canada. We were the biggest scarification company in North America for quite a long time until 10 years ago. As we saw the decline in forestry happening we transitioned our operational side and grew our consultancy and aerial photography to other industry including wind, solar, hydro and electric
as well as mining,” said Stephane. “  Many of our competitors have shrunk but our business has grown. We are now totally out of scarification but transitioned to reclamation services for mining.  An example of one of the new things we do is dust suppression into atmosphere for companies like NAP and  Gold Corp. We are also a distributor of the product in Minnesota in the Iron Range. The product will replace black tar on the shoulder of highways and is much more ecologically friendly.

    It was fun to learn about KBM Resources Inc of Thunder Bay and how they have succeeded in changing economic times.



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