Registered Professional Forester, British Columbia Professional Forestry Practice, Ethics & Registration: practice questions

1 · Forestry as a profession: societies, regulators and titles · medium

Under reserved practice, an unregistered forestry graduate may prepare a harvest plan on public land if:

1. The graduate has worked for at least one full season
2. A registered professional reviews and signs it
3. The landowner gives written permission for the plan
4. The plan covers less than the minimum regulated area

2 · Forestry as a profession: societies, regulators and titles · hard

According to most forestry codes of ethics, when duties conflict, which duty normally takes priority?

1. Duty to the employer's profits
2. Duty to colleagues' reputation
3. Duty to the public and the land
4. Duty to the professional body's finances

3 · Codes of ethics (e.g. SAF, FPBC, ICF) · medium

An employer asks a registered forester to sign a plan that the forester believes does not meet legal requirements. The forester should:

1. Refuse to sign and record the reasons
2. Sign it, because the employer bears the responsibility
3. Sign it and add a note in small print
4. Ask a trainee to sign it instead

4 · Codes of ethics (e.g. SAF, FPBC, ICF) · hard

Before deciding on a dilemma, a useful final test is whether the decision:

1. Would remain unknown to the regulator
2. Could be defended openly to peers and public
3. Would maximise this year's revenue for the employer and owners
4. Would please the most senior person involved

5 · Professional reliance and duty to the public and the land · hard

A recognised risk of professional reliance is that:

1. Professionals become unable to sign plans
2. Forest companies stop employing foresters
3. Plans can no longer be audited by anyone
4. Government may cut its own monitoring

6 · Consulting forestry: contracts, reports and liability · hard

A consultant's inventory report gives volume as '25,347.82 m³' from a sample with a 12% sampling error. The main reporting fault is:

1. Use of cubic metres
2. Reporting a total instead of per hectare
3. Too few decimal places
4. False precision without stating uncertainty

7 · Working with Indigenous peoples and local communities · hard

During road layout, a crew finds culturally modified trees not on any record. The forester should first:

1. Stop, protect the site and inform the community
2. Continue and report it in the end-of-season summary report
3. Remove the trees quietly to avoid delay
4. Photograph the trees and carry on

8 · Communicating professional advice and conflict management · medium

Advising a landowner that a planned harvest is not sustainable, which practice is best?

1. Give it verbally only, to avoid any conflict with the client
2. Soften it until it no longer says anything
3. Give it clearly in writing and keep a record
4. Tell only the neighbours

9 · Communicating professional advice and conflict management · hard

In a heated public debate, a forester is tempted to overstate the benefits of a plan to win support. This would breach the duty of:

1. Confidentiality
2. Honesty and objectivity
3. Competence
4. Continuing development

10 · Health and safety responsibilities · medium

Around a tree being felled, the exclusion zone for other workers is commonly at least:

1. Half the tree height
2. One metre
3. The width of the crown
4. Twice the tree height