Former Kamloops forester Lorne Swanell, 100, credits his long life to three letters: rum. Tom Fletcher/Black Press
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By Tom Fletcher | November 29, 2008The B.C. government has established a $1,500 bursary for ecological science in honour of the province’s oldest living forester.
Lorne Swanell, who turned 100 years old on Sept. 2, visited the legislature last Thursday to take part in the announcement and share a cake decorated with the B.C. Forest Service logo.
He said he is pleased about the bursary, which will be given to a student at the University of Northern B.C. in Prince George, where he was B.C.’s district forester in 1939 before serving in the Second World War.
Swanell graduated in forest engineering from the University of B.C. in 1930, and began his career with the B.C. Forest Service in Victoria.
After a year as a ranger, he started work as a junior forester in Kamloops as the region was dealing with a mountain pine-beetle outbreak.
Swanell noted B.C. forests have recovered from beetle epidemics before and will come back from the current one, the worst on record.
After serving in the 2nd Survey Regiment in Europe, Swanell went to work in Prince George.
In 1965 he was appointed chief forester for B.C., a position he held until his retirement in 1972.
His official designation as registered professional forester #6 (retired) makes him the oldest forester in the province.
Asked by reporters what he considers the secret to his long life, Swanell replied: “Rum.”
