A story on the partnership between Saik’uz First Nation and the Municipal District of Vanderhoof left the question open of whether such an arrangement of locally based organizations was similar to the types of entities that operated in the same area, decades earlier. To get an idea of what the regional forest economy looked like, we talked to John A. Brink of the Brink Group of Companies. …His subsidiary, Brink Forest Products Ltd. produces value-added dimensional lumber. This move to diversify was pursued upon noticing a series of changes in the forestry industry that eventually proved to encourage the consolidation of hundreds of companies into a handful. In part 1 of 2 of this interview, we explore what the forestry scene looked like locally, how it operated and at what scale from the 1950s through to the 80s. In part 2 of 2 of this interview, Brink divulges more disruptions the forestry industry came to terms with: pulp mills, pine beetle infestation, and trade disputes.