Forestry over time: Interviews with Canadian Forest Service personnel

Dr. Sylvie Gauthier, Emeritus Research Scientist, Forest Succession, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec City, QC

On the biggest changes over time: I can think of three things which all relate to the diversity of people involved. Firstly, the people working in the forest sector now have multiple backgrounds: forest engineer, biologist, geographer, environmental or social science. Secondly, the number of women working in forestry number is increasing and lastly, and very importantly, First Nations/Indigenous peoples are more involved in forest sector activities.

On the future of forestry: The impact of climate change, notably via disturbances, is one important challenge that I see. With this, I believe that, as a society, we will have to learn to do more and better with less timber, both for us and for the ecosystem itself.

James C.G. Farrell, Forest Project and Program Coordinator, Atlantic Forestry Centre, Fredericton, NB

On the biggest changes over time: The technology. I remember, when I began my education in forestry, we’d have a compass and we’d have a measuring tape for navigation and that was it. Now we have GPS (Global Positioning System), we have GIS (Geographic Information System) for forest planning, as well as remote sensing including LiDAR (light detection and ranging). Now we can get information right down to a fine scale.

I appreciate that sustainable forest management has changed too. It is more balanced, with a greater emphasis on other values, such as the importance of increasing biodiversity, and ecological and cultural values. It’s not just about the timber or the economy. Consequently, Canadians are realizing too that forestry is about more than just harvesting trees.

On explaining my research to youth: I work with scientists to try to better understand how different types of trees grow. We study the conditions and areas that make them grow the best and the healthiest. This field of study is called silviculture, it’s the art and science of producing and tending trees. To support this work, I undertake projects to measure and identify trees with lasers from airplanes—also known as LiDAR. In this type of remote sensing, you use the scanned ground data and run an algorithm to try to predict what trees are where. This is a type of AI (Artificial Intelligence) called machine learning.

Lucas Brehaut, Research Scientist-Wildfire Resilience, Atlantic Forestry Centre, Corner Brook, NL

On ongoing changes: Wildfires occur at a national level and the presence of research scientists, analysts and prediction modellers studying fire across the country is important. When I was hired as a fire scientist in Newfoundland, the people I talked to were very surprised I was based in Atlantic Canada. This is because they did not picture fires as being a part of their landscape. Within three years, however, from a public’s perspective, people have become very aware of the research needs in that field.

On the future of forestry: Public outreach will be very important. I think we are going to be doing a lot more public education work because misinformation is spreading on a number of fire-related topics. As researchers, we’ve got a lot of information coming to us, and it is our job to digest and understand it, so we are uniquely positioned to do this work. I also believe we’ll communicate the forestry-related topics in a more holistic approach. As an example, for fire it is important that we do not only educate on risk associated with it but also highlight the ecological and cultural benefits of fire and the positive impacts to ecosystems and communities.

Ellen Whitman, Forest Fire Research Scientist, Northern Forestry Centre, Edmonton, AB

On a career in forestry research: My key point to everyone is to follow your interests, especially if you’re excited about something. I suggest people not to limit themselves. Even if you don’t see a mentor or someone that looks like you in a role, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. If you’re excited about that work, and if that’s where you want to be, just from the perspective of enjoying your job, and feeling that your job is fulfilling, you are successful.

On how the forest is inspiring: The thing that I really love to think about with relation to forests and fire is the resilience of ecosystems and also the time scales on which they operate because often the fire blasts through, the trees die, and the forest looks so different in a flash. On the time scale of a human life, it can be really challenging to accept these big changes and deal with them. But fires are part of the normal ecosystem process, and in many ways, our forests respond really well to it, in their own time. Personally, the resilience of forests ecosystems is the thing that I find the most exciting and fascinating: how forests successfully recover after disturbances such as fires.

Jacques Régnière, Research Scientist, Insect Population Dynamics, Laurentian Foresty Centre, Québec City, QC

On explaining forestry research to youth: I work in the field of biomathematics, so I try to convey my fascination with just how many insects there are and how they could impact our forests. I explain that we study insects to better understand how they live and to find out what they feed on to survive, which could be leaves or other parts of trees that we want to see survive too. For example, looking at a particular forested area, if we have data on birds that feed on caterpillars that damage trees, we can calculate if, for example, there are enough of these caterpillars for the birds, what happens to the caterpillar population when they are being fed on by these birds, and then how many caterpillars are going to be able to survive and possible impacts.

On the biggest changes over time: In my particular field, at the beginning, we wanted to get rid of bugs. Bugs were bad. Now we’re trying to protect the integrity, persistence and longevity of the ecosystems. We realize that insects have a role to play in that, so they’re not necessarily bad. Most of the insects that we study are actually beneficial. Sometimes we need to kill bugs, but most of the time we need to understand and accommodate or accept and try to deal with their impact. Before, they were considered in the angle of their influence on our economics, but this changed.

Roxanne Comeau, Science Advisor, Collaborative Research, Science Policy Integration Branch, Ottawa, ON

On the biggest changes over time: In the 1980s, I went to the University of New Brunswick where I was one of, I think seven women, in my class out of a class about 45. But, in a university atmosphere we were all colleagues, so I didn’t feel any sort of challenges or things like that until I got to the workplace. That’s where I found that there were still barriers for women to enter, or thrive in, certain professions. Field camps, for example, didn’t have accommodations for women at the time. Also, when I started working in the private sector, there weren’t maternity leave benefits like there is today. So, for my first child, I took four months’ leave and for my second child, I took six weeks leave with the agreement that I’d come in to work with her!

On collaborative work: The trade in illegal forest products has been a growing international concern, and though Canada has excellent legal forest practices for their products, we needed to be more aware of the source of forest products that were coming into the country. In collaboration with Global Affairs and Environment and Climate Change Canada, we went to our researchers across the country who are experts in wood identification, and one of the items they developed was a training guide to help the Canada Border Services Agency recognize and identify illegal wood products. We also worked with our expert on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which lays out which species are on the illegal or endangered list. It was such a nice collaborative piece between the market access, the trade experts and our researchers.

Katalijn MacAfee, Director - Forest Ecosystems division, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Petawawa and Ottawa, ON

On a career in forestry research: What I do tell people often is you need to put yourself first. You have to think about what you want to do and what you want to get out of life. There are a lot of people that will provide advice and have all sorts of ideas, but ultimately you have to choose something that works well for you and not because other people want you to choose something or think you should do something. Ultimately, it’s your life and you have to make sure you live your life.

On the future of forestry: Enhanced forest inventory will continue to improve by leaps and bounds. The amount of data we can access now from, for example, LiDAR has provided so much information to us. Also, increased pressures on the forest have forced us to work more closely together to consider different priorities for forests. We used to have a linear vision: harvesting trees, grow trees again, and so on. I feel that now we think more about: What trees do we want to plant? How can we maximize value? Also, how do we maximize biodiversity values? How can we make sure that species at risk are well protected?