EACOM forester blazes the trail for professional women

Cochrane’s Jennifer Tallman is regarded as a Canadian forest industry trailblazer.

EACOM’s chief forester for Ontario took home the Forest Products Association of Canada’s (FPAC) Women in Forestry Award of Excellence. The industry association held its annual awards luncheon in Vancouver, May 9.

The Lakehead University forestry graduate began her career in the early 1990s at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, working in woodlands operations, certification and forest management.

After joining EACOM in 2015 as a planning coordinator, her prowess in building relationships with stakeholders and communities made her a clear choice to be elevated to the chief forester's position, the first woman to achieve the position.

An accomplished angler, hunter and small business owner, Tallman sits on the North American SFI Resources Committee and acts as chair for the Central Canada SFI Implementation Committee.

She is the only woman sitting on the board of directors of the cooperative Sustainable Forest Licensees for Sudbury, Timiskaming and Northshore Forests.

Tallman is also involved in strengthening the relationship between EACOM and the Ontario Professional Foresters Association, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and the made-in-Ontario initiative, Women In Wood.

She often volunteers with Forests Ontario’s Forestry in the classroom program to give presentations to students about her profession and forestry.