Our Story

FROM 1996 TO PRESENT DAY
DISCOVER CABIN'S STORY.

Founded in 1996, Cabin Forestry began working primarily in forest development and operations in the southern interior of British Columbia. Fast forward to 2020, we have now grown into a multi-disciplinary company that works across the province in forestry, wildfire, recreation, and environmental operations. We are a team of dedicated professionals who truly love what we do. Our steady growth over the past 26 years has been an exciting part of our story, and at its very foundation are the excellent people on our team.

Or more formally…

Now Cabin (Cabin Resource Management and Cabin Operations) is BC’s leading full-service resource management consultancy that strives to maximize positive financial and ecological outcomes for all stakeholders invested in the resource sector including forestry, wildfire, recreation and environmental operations. Industry experts participate in all facets of the project from assessment and planning through to implementation bringing years of experience to each project. Trusted by Interfor, RDCO, Big White, and the City of Kelowna, Cabin strives to push innovation and creativity in the management of the resource sector benefiting generations to come.

From the beginning…

1997

Two young R.R.F.’s who went to school together at U.B.C, Steve Milne and Carl McLennan, start Cabin Forestry Services based upon a shared a passion for forestry, a sense of adventure, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Cabin Forestry Services Logo

Cabin begins as a team of four forest professionals and technicians providing a range of forest development and silviculture services in the Monashee Mountains between the Okanagan and Kootenays.

1998-1999

In the early days, projects included forest management, silviculture, and growth and yield research in remote locations throughout the East and West Kootenays and Okanagan, in the Southern Interior of British Columbia.

Landscape Forest

The team grew to six and enjoyed many adventures working in snow, rain, and glorious summer days in some amazing locations such as Sugar Lake, Glacier Creek, Parsons, and the Rocky Mountain Trench.

2000

Tired of living in camp in the Okanagan and traveling home to Nelson every week, the Cabin crew set up shop in a new office built on Steve’s property near Vernon, B.C. The company grows to 8 full time and seasonal staff and expands services to include forest health surveys, total chance planning, and silviculture surveys.

BC Forestry

2001-2004

Cabin continues to grow to 10 full time and seasonal staff and branches into small scale salvage to assist with the recovery of timber at the outset of the unprecedented mountain pine beetle infestation in the province. Highlights in this period include winning the new business of the year in Vernon in 2001 and growing the salvage side of the business to match revenues from the forestry services side.

Cabin Winter Crew

The Cabin team become a tight knit family and spend as much time playing hockey, volleyball, and soccer together as they do work together.

Cabin Crew Hangout

2005

A new era of Cabin begins with Steve as the sole owner working with a smaller team of 6 at a new office in Ellison, at the north end of Kelowna. The focus remains on forest development and small-scale salvage projects for industry and government clients in the Okanagan Valley.

Okanagan Sledding

2006-2008

Cabin’s small scale salvage program continues to grow and leads to forest health/fuel mitigation treatments to protect cabins along Beaver and Oyama lakes.

Salvage Logging BC

With the unprecedented mountain pine beetle outbreak in the Province, Cabin’s development team grows to 10 and includes a new GIS department. The crew is a diverse bunch of men and women, including a francophone, First Nations Forest technicians, young forest professionals, and some wily veterans.

BC Forestry Workers

2009

The worst downturn in 50 years hits the forest industry hard. Cabin adapts by creating a recreation trail project in the Okanagan Valley that improves the epic 110 km long High Rim Trail that traverses from Kalamalka Lake Park in Vernon to Chute Lake near Naramata. A crew of 12 works for 8 months learning as they go, building a magnificent recreation trail across challenging landscapes.

High Rim Trail BC

2010-2013

Coming out of the great recession and with new trail building skills in hand, Cabin begins working on various recreation projects every year. These include recreation trails, linear parks, and urban parks for municipal governments and BC Parks in the Okanagan Valley.

Staircase building

Shake ups in the forest industry led to opportunities for Cabin to expand the forestry division to 20 staff and dependent contractors, increase the size of the GIS department, and add new First Nations and Industry clients in the Okanagan and Kootenays. Cabin develops over 1 million cubic metres of timber in one year, which is a milestone for the company.

Cabin Crew 2013

2014-2016

Kyle Broome, RPF, becomes a partner at Cabin and starts to grow a wildfire program that includes fuel mitigation treatments in the urban/forest interface around many communities in the Okanagan.

Cabin Wildfire 2015

Seizing opportunities in the expanding recreation sector, Cabin dedicates a full-time team to develop a Recreation Division that grows to include projects in the Kootenays as well as the Okanagan.

Trail Building Tools

Cabin now has over 40 full time and seasonal staff working across the Forestry and Recreation divisions in offices in Vernon and Castlegar, B.C.

Trails Safety Sign

In 2014, we were entrusted to develop a small 30,000 m3 permit in the Christian Valley for the Grandforks Division. The following year, we commenced full-phase development of a small permit in TFL 23 for the Nakusp Division. Our relationship has evolved over time and so have our services – First Nations Referrals, Tactical Development Planning, Forest Health Surveys, Wildfire Tactical Plans, Safety Consulting and Harvest/Road Supervision.

Kootenay Views stakeholder referrals

2017-2019

Trevor Rasmussen, RFT, becomes a partner and takes the reigns of the Recreation Division. Highlights in this period include building flow trail at the bike park at Big White, building epic recreation trails in Mackenzie, B.C., urban bike parks throughout the Okanagan, and linear parks in throughout the province.

https://cabinworks.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20140917_122153-800x1067.jpg

The Wildfire Division continues to grow to include 4 full time staff and take on fuel mitigation treatments in the Kootenays and Okanagan.

https://cabinworks.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Marius-Kat-Fuel-Mods-Peter-Hope-800x600.jpg

The Kootenay office is moved to Nelson, returning to the Cabin’s birthplace after nearly 20 years away, and supports the continued growth of the Forestry Division led by Mike Crone, which grows to over 45 full time employees, with a number of clients in B.C. and Alberta.

Forestry Crew Koots

Cabin starts to dabble in RPAS and remote sensing with the intention to automate silviculture surveys using artificial intelligence. This was the foundation of what turned into TerraSense Analytics.

Remote Sensing

2020-2022

Mike Crone, RPF, becomes the fourth partner at Cabin and continues to diversify and grow the Forestry Division into new areas including landscape level forest modelling, planning and analysis, Enhanced Forest Resource Inventories and RPAS operations.

Mike Crone Partner

The Wildfire Division continues to thrive, providing tactical wildfire planning, fuel management prescriptions, implementation, and suppression services to clients throughout BC. Wildfire grows to support a full-time team of 10 people.

Wildfire Cabin

The Recreation division takes on it’s largest, most challenging, projects to date including construction a new boardwalk in MacMillan Provincial Park and upgrading the City Park Promenade in Kelowna.

Cathedral Grove

Cabin creates an Environmental Division to expand into interesting sectors, including riparian restoration, and offsetting, ecological construction, and carbon offset projects.

Eneas Creek
Eneas Creek

Cabin reacquires TerraSense Analytics Operations team and brings back RPAS and remote sensing in-house.

Okanagan Lake Fire

Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, Cabin continues to mature as a company, surpassing 90 employees across its 5 divisions and three offices.

CABIN Resource Management

2023 and beyond

Cabin splits into two companies: Cabin Resource Management (forestry, wildfire planning & remote sensing) and Cabin Operations (recreation, wildfire operations & environmental).

Cabin Resource Management
Cabin Operations

Cabin is awarded the management contract for the Nakusp and Area Community Forest and opens its fourth office in Nakusp B.C. In addition to managing the community forest and providing a wide range of resource management services, the Nakusp office provides support for the Arrow Lakes Caribou Society, assisting in the recovery of Southern Mountain Central Selkirk Caribou.

NACFOR

Cabin Resource Management adds a new division! The Heritage division integrates respect, accountability, and reciprocity to community-minded archaeological research to support reconciliation.

Cabin Heritage

Cabin opens up an office in Nakusp! This office is central to our Kootenay work and allows us to more closely be a part of the community.

Nakusp House BBQ

Our Leadership

Steve Milne, RPF

Steve Milne, RPF

Partner

Steve is the founding partner at Cabin and over the past 30 years, he has put his heart and soul into forest resource management and recreation. Steve has extensive experience managing forest sector, parks and recreation, ecosystem restoration and forest fire fuel mitigation projects for industry clients, First Nations and government agencies.

In addition to his management experience, he also has a sound understanding of forest road engineering, silviculture, recreation trail design and construction, Ministry of Environment (MOE) regulations, archaeological and Cultural Heritage resource values, ecosystem classification, invasive plant reviews, sensitive ecosystem assessments, Species at Risk assessments and soils analysis.

Kyle Broome, Cabin Partner

Kyle Broome, RPF

Partner

Kyle’s role at Cabin has evolved from Project Manager on multi-phase layout contracts to general manager. He has 16 years’ experience in forest resource management with emphasis on timber development and wildfire. Kyle has successfully supervised and managed large-scale, multi-phase timber development contracts on the Coast and in the Southern Interior BC. He has worked on strategic, landscape-level Total Resource and Total Chance Plans as well as worked innumerable days in the field engineering roads and harvest systems. His recent focus is on wildfire management and planning, drafting Community Wildfire Protection Plans, fuel management prescriptions and fuel management implementation supervision.

In his role as Partner and Director of Meaningfulness at Cabin, he is focused on recruitment, business development and internal systems.

Trevor Rasmussen, RFT

Trevor Rasmussen, RFT

Partner

Trevor has worked in the forest industry for over 19 years and has worked for Cabin as a Senior Technician and Project Manager over the past 10 years.  In the past five years, Trevor has assessed wildlife/danger trees and oversaw felling by a Certified Faller on a series of recreation trail projects.

Trevor has led numerous capital projects such as large gabion basket retaining walls, flex MSE engineered walls, timber staircase projects, and playground installations. He has also worked as a carpenter over the past six years on various recreation trail projects and has experience establishing concrete bases, constructing timber steps, bridges, installing signs, and guardrails. Through his time on these projects, he has become an accomplished carpenter.

Mike Crone, Cabin Partner

Mike Crone, RPF

Partner

As a Partner and Manager of Cabin’s Forestry Division, Mike is responsible for the management and coordination of our forestry workforce as well as business development, resource allocation, budgeting and administration across multiple forestry projects. With a strong background in forest management planning, Mike has completed numerous resource planning and analysis projects at the landscape and site level throughout the interior of BC and Alberta. He has extensive experience with completing LiDAR driven land base classifications and operational, tactical and strategic development plans. His past work includes detailed analysis of timber supply, spatial harvest sequencing, patch size distribution, old and mature seral distribution, Ungulate Winter Range, grizzly bear and equivalent clearcut area. Additionally, Mike provides expertise in geometric road design and engineering cost estimates, Visual Resource Management, permitting, appraisals and forest legislation and policy.

In addition to his planning work, Mike continues to successfully implement and manage large full-phase development contracts. His previous experience includes silviculture prescriptions and contract administration, including the supervision and coordination of site preparation, planting and surveying, as well as harvesting and road construction supervision, stakeholder consultation, EMS coordination and implementation and operating ground rule development.

Cabin logo plain

Vernon Office

Unit 20A - 100 Kalamalka Lake Rd.
Vernon, BC, V1T 9G1
778-475-3655

Nelson Office

Room #500A - 901 Front St.
Nelson, BC, V1L 4C1
778-463-1045

Kelowna Office

#2-3304 Appaloosa Rd.
Kelowna, BC, V1V 2W5

Nakusp Office

119 Broadway St W
Nakusp, BC V0G 1R0
250-265-3603

General Inquiries

hello@cabinworks.ca

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