A Green Dream Success Story

December 11, 2014 5:24 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

This is now my second summer living in Peace River and I’m glad to be back. Last summer I got an internship with Daishowa Marubeni International by winning a contest put on by the greenest workforce post-1called the green dream contest, where students interested in a career in forestry could win an internship with a forestry company. The summer was great and I learned a lot about forestry and the various programs that DMI is involved with that are helping to develop a better understanding of Alberta’s forest ecosystems. A few studies I was able to be a part of were EMEND and WESBOGY, both of which are leading to discoveries that are helping us better manage our forests in a sustainable way while promoting biodiversity. Having learned about how much the people at DMI care about the future of our forests made me pleased to be working for them because as an environmental scientist it’s important to me that our forests are protected and managed sustainably.

After the internship was over I moved back to Ontario to finish my final year of university. During the year it was nice to be able to relate what I learned during my internship to what I was learning in my courses. With more freedom in my final year to decide what to focus my studies on I decided to research a range of forestry related topics from deforestation in the amazon and its effect on mercury pollution to the impact of the mountain pine beetle on Canada’s forests and even worked on a community based resources project to establish an urban food forest in one of the parks near my university.

As I got closer to graduating I realized that I definitely wanted to pursue a future career in forestry, so when I heard that DMI was looking for a Forester in-training I was quick to apply and ended up getting the job. So now I’ve been working as a forester in-training for DMI for 3 months and I couldn’t imagine a better job to have now that I’ve finished university. I have more responsibility with my new position and am now in charge of supervising the summer students when doing work out in the field. post-2
Erosion control for one of the bridges on our logging roads
So far this year I’ve assisted with gravel haul operations on our logging roads and assisted in setting up erosion control. I’ve been able to go out into the field with some of the more seasoned staff members here at DMI to check the condition and layout of our cutblocks. I have also given tours of a local nature trail to local grade six classes to teach them more about forest ecology, native plant species and wildlife.

As well, I have been doing tree measurements at DMI’s test sites with the help of the summer students. These test sites are used to evaluate the survival, growth and resistance of the clones of native tree species which provides information about which clones perform the best. This data is important and is even being looked at to see what effect climate change is having on the growth of native tree species in Alberta.

In sum, I’m really enjoying my job and am looking forward to learning more about forestry and taking on new challenges in the future as I continue to work for DMI.

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