Member Spotlight: Mark Partington

The FAPN provides the means for forest industry?members, forest science researchers, forest policy makers and others to share information and best practices on current activities in the area of climate change vulnerability and adaptation in Canada's forest sector.?Click here to join this community!

Over the last few months, we have been highlighting members of our community and their career journeys, projects, initiatives and their unique perspective on Forestry Adaptation in Canada.?This month spotlight is Mark Partington , Manager of the Transportation and Infrastructure team at FPInnovations .

What is your current occupation and how long have you been there?

I am the?Manager of the Transportation and Infrastructure team in the Forest Operations Department at FPInnovations. I held this role for three and a half years and before that I was a Senior Researcher that was leading efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of forest operations, and of course climate change adaptation.

How did you end up in this position and why did you join?

It happened sort of by accident. I graduated the University of New Brunswick with a Forestry and Environmental Management Degree. While I was a student, I worked as a summer student for the provincial government in the research side of forestry which peaked my interest in this aspect of forestry. After graduating I started a short term contract at FERIC, which was FPInnovations back then and ended up here. I moved around a lot initially, going from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick, and now Quebec. When I started, most forestry jobs were in small communities so ending up in Montreal wasn’t a target but that is just where the ball takes you sometimes.

What is your favorite part of working in this role?

I enjoy not always doing the same thing. There is an opportunity to do different projects and interact with different people in the forest industry. Our work covers the entire country so staff have the opportunity to travel across the country with companies, governments and different forestry groups. Something else I like is that FPInnovations isn’t academic, but we are applied research, so we get instant feedback on our work. We deliver the results directly, get feedback and then see if the value was realized or recommendations were implemented which is satisfying.

How do you consider climate change in your work?

It’s a much more emphasized and key part of our work.?Five to six years ago there was a climate change flavor in research, but it has begun being more fully integrated into a variety of projects and objectives related to creating climate resilient forest operations. Climate change has also morphed on the mitigation side to achieve things like net-zero objectives or for carbon sequestration. We see this in work related to developing longer living products, bioproducts, or replacing fossil fuel-based products. Within the transportation and infrastructure team, efforts related to climate resilient resource roads has grown.?We are also working with reducing?greenhouse gas emissions with the move towards electrification, alternative fuels, and hybrid options for heavy duty vehicles.

An interesting point is that there have always been aspects of incorporating environmental changes from year to year in forest operations. For example, how can we build a better road so that vehicles don’t get stuck and continued access can be assured. At the time we didn’t call it adaptation but in recent years we have added the tag of climate change and adaptation. So we consider both adaptation and mitigation in our work, but I would say we started with the adaptation piece and have been doing that and mitigation is the longer term objective that requires government support and broader goals.?

What are the biggest challenges you think forests in Canada face due to climate change? Are there any climate-related?vulnerabilities or challenges in adapting to climate change?

I think a key aspect of how climate change is impacting forests is by effecting the frequency and severity of events that are occurring. For example, inducing more wildfires, larger impacts from insects, and windstorms. These events affect annual allowable harvest levels and long term forest management. From the forest operations level, the biggest change that is affecting operations in much of the country is milder winters. It can be easier to determine??how to adapt to more rainfall or short duration intense rainfall events in spring or fall, as we can adapt the road or road maintenance through larger culverts, as an example. But when the winter is milder and forest access depends on frozen soil, adaptation can be more difficult and requires more effort and potential changes to historical practices which can be expensive.

All of these events require the industry to adapt and we can’t necessarily adapt quickly to these challenges. Often, we need collaboration between different levels of government and industry, communities, and Indigenous communities. Sometimes we need to change things and it isn’t easy for all parties to agree on the right change. For example, related to wildfire management, the industry might be concerned with protecting the forest to ensure a reliable fibre supply. This might require more robust wildfire management which may not always align with other needs such as wildlife management objectives, regulatory requirements, or communities’ interests. For example, if a fire smart practice is to thin the forest near a community to reduce wildfire intensity, it can be complex if the community does not want this intervention.?

What are some of the key trends/ impacts or changes you have noticed in the forestry industry due to climate change?

When climate change first started to be a topic of discussion, people needed to see data and see what the changes were. The discussions were “here is how the climate is changing” to show people that trends were occurring. We have moved away from that and people don’t need convincing. Now discussions are that people need answers to their challenges or need to make a change to their forest operations and are wondering what is the most effective and efficient way to make the change. The conversation is focused on impacts and immediate adaption actions and how governments might be able to support solutions and what individuals can do now.

An example of change over time is when the industry started moving into adaptation, it began with forest roads and that climate change risks can be highlighted through risk and vulnerability assessments. We worked on how to apply the PIEVC method but found it was too robust for the forest sectors needs so we moved to different approaches. We moved from this initial process to illustrate risk and vulnerabilities to the current situation where people coming to us with the challenges and issues they face and wanting to learn how to mitigate the issues.?

What are some of the most important ways that you feel the forestry industry / organizations can contribute to the climate problem?

In the forest sector, there are challenges but also opportunities to contribute to mitigation and grow and develop as the result of these challenges. Again, on the mitigation side, introducing products that replace fossil fuel products, residues that reduce our carbon footprint, biofuels etc. We can also develop designs for longer lived wood products such as mass timber that can replace more traditional building materials. On the resiliency side, moving towards better methods for how forest management can contribute to carbon sequestration and to broader goals of net-zero.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to enter your field?

Part of what has changed is that majority of jobs when I was entering the industry were primarily for foresters or forest engineers and you needed to be a registered professional forester or engineer to advance your career. The diversity of expertise required in the forest sector is much broader in recent years. For example, remote sensing specialists, robotics specialist, urban forestry, biologists and much more. Someone interested in the sector in general can have a much broader skill set and find work in both urban and rural communities.

What are some of your career highlights/milestones/or opportunities that you are really proud of?

When I first started my career, forest certification was really taking off, with organizations such as Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and eventually??Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). One of the results of these certifications was that it increased the amount of effort and requests from the forest sector for projects related to considering the environmental impacts of forest operations. I had the opportunity to accelerate and grow FPInnovations involvement in this area of operational research work at the time. Nowadays, there is a whole area of transportation focused work that is related to GHG reduction, electrification, and the move towards heavy-duty hybrid vehicles which is an exciting area of significant impact. I am looking forward to seeing additional projects and positive impacts in this area.