Road Exploration Part II
May 11, 2014 10:20 am Leave your thoughts
This exploring is not only an amazing way to familiarize myself with the area and its inhabitants, but also my co-workers for the coming months. The people you spend your day with can make or break a job, as you often spend more time with co-workers then your own family! (And being so far from home, it is certainly true for me.)
As stated by Sarah, one of my summer supervisors, we three summer students are a perfect representation of Canadian forestry. One of my co-workers has lived in this area her whole life, attending college within Ontario for environmental management, the other is in her first year of forestry at the University of New Brunswick, with me heralding from Vancouver Island, BC.
It is interesting to learn of the different styles these schools and provinces offer us as future environmental managers. Our forests are all different, having varying challenges with climate change, wildlife and their habitats, as well as the interests of the human inhabitants of these places. Considering that we are all a part of the same Canadian industry, though, it is important to learn all of these issues, as they all affect one another. Our mountain pine beetle infestation of BC may, in the future (the hopefully not!), become and issue for the pine heavy forests of Eastern Canada. Issues such as the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), which is being met with support by Ontario forest companies, including Tembec, may influence the way Alberta or BC deal with environmental balances.
We students are the future of this industry and are all experiencing the beginning of this together. As we sit side-by-side in our work vehicle, swapping stories and interests, discussing our educations and environmental issues, we are all educating each other. My co-worker who is a local resident is a great source of local wildlife knowledge, bringing our foreign attentions to what is around us in her home forest. We are all hoping to spend some free time in the wilds together, canoeing the local rivers and exploring the many provincial parks in the area (10 within the Martel forest).
Yet another bonus to this experience- a summer shared with like-minded new friends.