THUNDER BAY – A new trilateral agreement between Lakehead University, Confederation College and the national forest service is intended to provide new pathways for students while strengthening research opportunities for the organizations.
The two Northwestern Ontario postsecondary institutions earlier this week officially signed a five-year memorandum of understanding for forest science research and education with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service, which is meant to ensure increased collaboration and sharing of expertise and resources .
David Nanang, director general of the Canadian Forest Service’s Great Lakes Forestry Centre, said it’s important to foster those who are going to be working in the field and will be needed to conduct research for future sustainable development.
“We also realize that in this modern world you can’t work by yourselves,” Nanang said.
“You have to work in collaboration with partners and working with Confederation College and Lakehead University, who have the capacity and the excellent institutions for supporting graduate and undergraduate training, allows us to tap into the human resources potential of Northern Ontario to support our forestry.”
For students, the agreement is expected to set up internship and research opportunities with the forest service. The partnership also opens the door for university and college faculty to work with their researchers and the sharing of knowledge and facilities.
Nanang, who is based out of their Sault Ste. Marie facility, said participating students will have the opportunity to work in any of the forest service’s six labs across the country.
“When you’re in school, you’re learning about what’s going on in the textbooks and you’re learning from your professors who are in academic institutions,” Nanang said.
“When you come out into the world, it’s a different thing sometimes. You realize by having students with us who come and see the kinds of problems – real-life problems – that we are addressing. Then, they get a perspective on how their training can support the solution to real-life problems.”
Andrew Dean, the university’s vice president of research and innovation, said the agreement will give students hands-on experience while also getting a taste of other aspects of the forest service.
“It’s everything from pest control to urban agriculture to biomass to clean energy. Our students in forestry have great ability to get jobs. They get very good-paying jobs but what I think this opens up is for them to see a number of different opportunities for them as well,” Dean said.
One of the goals of the partnership is to enhance their research opportunities and funding. Having a formal agreement helps to bridge a divide that is often present between government agencies and educational facilities, Dean added.
“Much of the research in Canada is actually done in government labs and government facilities but sometimes that connection between academic institutions and government research institutions is not as strong as it could be,” Dean said. “I think this is a good example of how this government is really encouraging their research centres and research institutes to actually involve academia.”
Confederation College president Kathleen Lynch said natural resource management programs, like forestry, are important for the institutions.
“I think this just strengthens that focus for everybody involved. Forestry is vital for this area of Northwestern Ontario,” Lynch said.
