Interview with Melissa Spearing

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Over the next few months, we will be highlighting members of our community in order to share their career journeys, projects and initiatives they are involved in and their unique perspective on Forestry Adaptation in Canada. This month’s spotlight is Melissa Spearing, Seed Biologist with the National Tree Centre which is part of the Canadian Forest Service and Natural Resources Canada.

What is your current occupation and how long have you been there? I am currently a Seed Biologist with the National Tree Centre which is part of the Canadian Forest Service and Natural Resources Canada, based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I was hired formally in November of 2020 but I’ve had several casual contracts with the Tree Seed Centre, initially volunteering back in 2016. In September 2021, I also started a part-time Masters in Forest Science at University of New Brunswick.?

How did you end up in this position and why did you join? I remember a moment in March 2011 when I was in Horticulture school and I got asked if I wanted to do a special project on seed exchange with different botanical gardens around the world. That project and then through my 2012 internship with the Ministry of Natural Resources I helped develop a new Seed Manual for Ontario. Practically, this gave me the chance to see what needed to be done, which seeds are important to conserve, which species were of concern, etc.

On the research side, after I graduated, I was able to go to the Millennium Seed Bank in England to do a work training course. I got exposure to the world of seedbanks and then I started to do some research to figure out if this was a career in Canada. I connected with Dale Simpson who is one of the few people that does seed testing work in Canada. I asked Dale if I could volunteer with him and I was able to work in his lab.?

I joined because I think I was a squirrel in a former life. I think seeds are very important and an undervalued part of forestry that needs more attention and interest from the younger generation.?

What is your favorite part of working in this role? Seeing seeds on the landscape is my favourite part. I enjoy teaching other people how to earn their “Eagle Eyes” and identify different kinds of seeds. I think people assume seeds are just everywhere. I think forestry in Canada has built a good system for most of the important species we harvest but people assume this applies to all other species which isn’t the case. Rare trees can wait years between good crops - I’ve had certain situations where I’ve waited almost 10 years for a chance to collect a species.

My other favourite part of being a seed biologist is studying these little miracles that are perfect little packages of genetics and adaptation – we need them, yet they’re not always there when we need them. I love that seeds can time travel. You can put them in the freezer, they’ll stay asleep, and then after 60 years, they’re still able to wake up and grow.

How do you consider climate change in your work? The hard part about climate change is that the problem is so large and is going to impact so many places. There are not enough resources to take care of every landscape and so the most heartbreaking part is knowing what you know and deciding what you can and can’t save. You want everywhere in Canada to adapt equally but climate change is not a fair game. We have to operate on annual plans, but we also have to act as if 2050 is here. In my work the hard part is anticipating the future and seeing something and knowing no matter how much you do, you may never see some of these opportunities to collect certain seed again.

The easy part is telling people that if we do this now, we will have a chance and we can have hope for certain species or landscape. People are more aware of what they can do and what I really love about seed collection and seed research is that everyone can lay their hands on it and feel like they have done something impactful; they are able to pick seed, plant trees, see themselves as part of the solution.

There are also extreme events happening. For example, during the heat dome out west last year, trees were more resilient than we thought, as some of these conifer species have lived for over 350 million years. Most recognizable flowering species are evolutionary younger and we’ll have to do research to see if they have similar adaptation abilities. There is lots of science to do in this area.?

What are the biggest challenges you think forests in Canada face due to climate change? Any climate-related?vulnerabilities or challenges in adapting to climate change? Though I don’t directly contribute, I am really invested in the research from the Great Lakes Forestry Centre on how trees are adapted to climate, what is their climatic niche, etc. I think the biggest impacts that we are seeing now is drought which has an impact on natural regeneration. Though there is an upper forest canopy, there is often nothing growing underneath that is of the same species and so the forest is destined to change.?

Another big impact is that due to the rate of climate change, trees cannot keep up on their own. Climate change is moving faster, and trees cannot move fast. This has implications for forestry as an economy, biodiversity, and even national parks. This means we must consider migrating species manually because seeds of most species are too heavy to migrate 3-4 km per year on their own.

A challenge to adapting to climate change is whether organizations are prepared to change the status quo. While I am part of the government and we have policies and programs to get to net zero, this requires cooperation between NGOs, academia, and the private sector. The private sector can do a lot of things quicker, they can innovate and integrate things that the government can’t do as rapidly. I have been able to see the benefits of both the public and private sector and I think there are great ideas and innovations from the private side and good policy on the public side. So there needs to be collaboration and taking inspiration on both ends towards changing the status quo.?

I’m also really inspired lately by Indigenous groups I’ve been working with. It is changing my perspective on how with any decision, you can think seven generations ahead and consider if they will have the same choices that I have now, or least most of the same options.?

What are some of the key trends/ impacts or changes you have noticed in the [forestry/adaptation] industry? I still feel new to the forestry industry/world, but on my way to this role, it was very encouraging to see that there are more workshops and forestry conferences being organized that are oriented towards climate change adaptation planning and collaboration. There’s also so much research into these early indicators of change at the local level such as modelling that can incorporate real forest inventories. I’d say that in the last 10 years in Canada, decision-making tools like that have really come far. While I think this is a good trend, eventually it has to hit the ground and move long-term management to what can we change about operations and what can we include in silvicultural education today. We need to move information into the young technicians of the industry, so they are hitting the ground with full awareness of their climate change adaptation toolkit.?

Another thing inundating the industry right now is research: the sheer volume can be overwhelming and at times hard to know what to add to best practices. I think the people in knowledge synthesis, knowledge extension and science communication are extremely important right now so that science is communicated in a way that more people understand.?

Finally, a more negative trend I am observing because I have spent about seven years learning about it is how people understand how trees are born – naturally or artificially, the entire supply chain. There is so much that goes into delivering high quality tree seedlings and it is a critical part of forest management. If the assisted migration models are right, we’re going to be planting more trees and we will need a bigger portfolio of seeds to work from. I don’t think the public and even some foresters understand how fragile that system has become, especially as many people from this field are retiring. There are not enough people getting into it and so there is a massive skill gap. People need to learn about how seeds are delivered in their province, how the systems run, what’s in their bank, etc. We have been improving local seed orchard supply for a long time but we’re going to have to change as the climate change. Capacity to manage and set up new orchards is really strained in some places. Tree improvement is doing great research on making sure the core species can adapt but overall I don’t feel our seed production systems are fully prepared for 2040s to 2050s.?

What are some of the most important ways that you feel the forestry industry / organizations can contribute to the climate solution? The people in the forestry industry know how trees grow. We know forests are carbon sinks and sources. There is good analysis on how forest fires and beetle outbreaks overwhelm our forests and release carbon, but on the flip side, we need to be able to put the carbon back once the risk is gone. The forestry industry can be prepared for every scenario that can happen. The best way forestry I feel can do this is with a diverse forest genetics portfolio that looks outside the status quo of what has been done in the past.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to enter your field? I am in this position not because I’m the most experienced but because I am passionate about seed biology. I would say be passionate and find your angle. If you’re interested in one specific angle, find the experts through workshops and conferences to learn more about it and determine if it’s an opportunity. There are lots of opportunities in forestry because of the wave of retirements coming and there needs to be people to fill these shoes.?

I think something else I would say is that if you can be someone who works with their hands and mind at the same time you can be really powerful because that skillset is needed. We can’t all be desk jockeys and we can’t all be in the field, but even when I was working with my hands in the dirt, I was always thinking about big picture things. If this talk inspires anyone, please call me!

What are some of your career highlights/milestones/ or opportunities that you are really proud of? The day I arrived at the Millennium Seed Bank was definitely a highlight. I still talk to people that I met there, and it was an opportunity to get a worldly perspective on seeds and realize how lucky Canada is to have the money, resources, sectors, and research institutes that we do. I’d like to keep the National Tree Seed Centre on the map because it’s been a leading beacon for the world, and we’ve trained dozens of other countries how to operate a tree seed center. That impact on tree planting programs in other countries must be huge!

There was a conference that I helped organize that happened in late June this year called “Challenges to our Future Tree Seed Supply”. I met with people from all over Europe, the US and Canada and it reinforced the topics I have been working on. Meeting all those people and young people in particular was something I enjoyed and will probably be an important experience for my career over the next 10 years.

Another highlight was in 2019, during my first month at the seed center, we did a seed collection of an endangered Magnolia species in Canada (endangered since 1984), and seed behaviour hadn’t been thoroughly studied since 1937. No one had evidence that anyone had stored or froze this seed, which is how many of Canada’s seed centers operate. We did some experiments and had the first global case of storing viable frozen seed, which was really exciting.

Finally, in March of 2022, the National Tree Centre officially launched an Indigenous Seed Collection Program where we would create space for Indigenous communities to bring up any forest species of interest and store them long-term for these communities if needed. One species we have been working on is Black Ash which is culturally important to many communities from Eastern Canada. We also started hearing from communities that there are other species and plants that they are concerned about, for example medicinal plants and berries. We don’t have a lot of basic data on how to store their seeds properly and we want to try to protect the species the way their Indigenous Elders knew how to do. So, this is a big program that’s going on right now and I’m proud to be a part of it; there’s a lot to relearn and a lot of work to do. In the next little while, I’m going to be working with 3-4 different communities to help with greenhouses, seed collections, and to talk about what they care about.

Resources:

Indigenous Seed Collection Program -?https://www.canada.ca/en/natural-resources-canada/news/2022/03/national-tree-seed-centre-launches-indigenous-seed-collection-program.html

Scaling up seed supply webinar 2022 -?https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn5sGR1lUtHT_9XglqkUg7Q-dZqE0_k1a