Member Spotlight: Megan de Graaf

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, their career journeys, projects, initiatives and their unique perspective on Forestry Adaptation in Canada.?This month spotlight is Megan de Graaf, Forest Program Director at Community Forests International . Happy Reading!

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

I am a Forest Ecologist by education and my current occupation is Forest Program Director at the Community Forests International (CFI). I have been in this role since June 2015.

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

This is a cool, full-circle story. I worked in the natural resource and conservation sector in New Brunswick for about 20 years, almost entirely in the non-profit sector. In 2008, I received an invitation to hear about a new organization called Community Forests International dedicated to forestry and they were doing a tour to meet forestry professionals in the Maritimes. During the meeting, I had mentioned they really need to look at this magnificent hemlock forest just outside of Sussex, New Brunswick. So fast forward several years, I kept in touch and followed what they were doing, which was very cool and avant-garde work. In 2015, I got back in contact with them and I was actually head hunted for this position to lead the forest and carbon science work that we do now. It just so happens the hemlock forest I had suggested years ago was their first official forest carbon offset property and that’s how I got involved!

What is your favorite part working in this role?

It feels really good to go to work and know that I am doing something that actively addresses the climate crisis. There is no part of my work that isn't really timely, urgent, and impactful and I can't imagine anything more meaningful for my life. I am really fortunate to work with an incredible team of people, mostly in the Canadian Forest Program. I draw a lot of inspiration from my teammates who do the amazing work and they're the most important part of this work. We also have a whole team of folks who work in East Africa on impactful projects in women's empowerment, agroforestry, food security, and the climate crisis. These projects uplift rural communities and people who are in need of those resources, and so I also draw a lot of inspiration from there.

How do you consider climate change in your work?

Climate change is baked into everything we do at CFI, it’s a central pillar of our work. I can think of three good examples of how we are addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The first example is carbon offsetting which we have been working on for over a decade and we were one of the first carbon offset projects in Canada in 2012. We have been really interested in research and development and our role in de-risking complex challenges around climate, mitigation, and our natural resources. We've also been really interested in finding out how you can benefit local communities, specifically, rural ones, in a way that supports and empower them and incentivizes them towards sustainable forest management. We started out with internal carbon offsets projects but have now evolved to the first pilot project. In this pilot we've aggregated 63 small private landowners and their families and they're selling carbon offset credits from about 65,000 acres in the Maritimes.

Another good example which is more on the adaptation side is the great research and work on figuring out the effects of climate change on our forests. 4 or 5 years ago, I was thinking it's great that we have all this research available to us, but there's nothing being translated into applicable information for the practitioner. How do we actually manage our forests for increased climate resilience and carbon storage? We undertook a project to build resources for forestry practitioners and professionals to help them work through a decision-making matrix and determine a prescription for a specific tree stand. So if you were to walk into a given stand, you would work through a decision tree to determine the interventions to increase the resilience and carbon storage of that stand.?

?The third example that’s been a strong priority of ours for the last 3 or 4 years, is centering climate justice and in this part of the world that means Indigenous justice. We are working to support Indigenous-led conservation and Indigenous climate-based projects. We're in active conversations now and building relationships with all the various nations in the Maritimes. These discussions relate to building co-management plans with some of the properties in our care all the way to land back. So we're actively exploring land back with some of our partners, and that's probably the most exciting work that we're doing right now.

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

I will focus my answer on the Wabanaki Forest because that is where we work most directly. The Wabanaki forest is a forest type also known as the Acadian Forest and it covers the Maritime Provinces, a little bit of the Gaspé Peninsula, and then all of the New England States. It is a distinct forest and has different challenges and unique features compared to the Boreal Forest. The Wabanaki Forest is a blend of cold, tolerant, boreal forest species like balsam fir, white spruce, trembling aspen, and also species that are typically found in the South. Science shows that species that are typically associated with the boreal forest are likely to decline as the as the climate continues to change whereas those species here in the Wabanaki Forest that are affiliated with southerly climates are likely to persist, or even thrive. The downside is that the last 70 years of intensive forest management has prioritized timber which has meant a disproportionate, overrepresentation of those boreal forest species. Most forest management really emphasizes those cold tolerant softwood species like white spruce, and as a result we have a disproportionate representation of those very vulnerable species. Across this landscape, much of the more resilient species have been sort of weeded out, or their composition is reduced. I tell people that this is basically a ticking carbon time bomb on this landscape. We are going to reach a tipping point, probably sooner rather than later, where the effects of climate change are going to drive the forest here past a point of no return. The forests won’t be a carbon sink and instead they will become a carbon source.

So what I consider to be a huge vulnerability of this forest is the drive towards low value softwood species, whose purpose is producing pulp for toilet paper, for example. This is a huge disservice to this forest because its role could be to become one of the greatest carbon sinks in the world. Given the diversity of species here and the natural resilience to major disturbances, this forest type could actually be a really significant carbon storehouse, which it isn’t right now.

What are some of the key trends/ impacts or changes you have noticed in the forestry/adaptation industry?

One of the most noticeable trends has taken place in Nova Scotia. A famous report called the Lahey report was published in 2018 after many years of investigation into the forest sector and forest management in Nova Scotia. The recommendations from this report leaned towards an overhaul of the entire forestry sector and instead favored ecological forestry. There had been other similar reports, but this one landed on heels of decades of work, during a receptive government, also during struggles in Nova Scotia due to overharvesting. Since then, the provincial government has committed to implementing ecological forests on crown land which make up about 30% of forests. That is a remarkable progression and a rare instance where purely economic considerations didn't control the situation and instead community values, ecological services, biodiversity, water quality etc. were considered.

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

I will preface this by saying I am a settler and I do not want to speak on behalf of Indigenous communities. As a settler in this space, I see respecting and upholding Indigenous leadership and values as probably one of the most important things that we can do. Indigenous peoples have been living with and managing forest ecosystems for thousands of years. I ascribe to the belief that it’s really been through colonialism and imperialism that forests have radically changed from a sustainable way of living with one’s ecosystem towards something that is not sustainable. I think that one of the most impactful things that we could do is uplift those who know better than us and who have solutions.

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

There are a variety of organizations that occupy space within my field. I work for a charity or non-profit organization, which is just one type of organization. There are definitely pros and cons to working for different types of organizations. I think somebody who wants to enter the field has to spend some time reflecting on what matters most to them. If somebody is really interested in sort of flexible, engaging work that has a very measurable impact, then moving into my field and working for a non-profit or a charity is a good fit. If somebody is interested in working in climate-focused forest management, or that that sector as a whole, there are a lot of really interesting questions in this space. There's no ceiling on what we could explore, or where we can go with this kind of work because it's so timely, urgent and important. It's also very hot and frankly, the funding is out there. If anybody is having difficulty finding a good fit in terms of an organization or a company, volunteering is always a good way to get your foot in the door if you are able to make that commitment.?

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

It's not really me, it's my entire team that has some great accomplishments. I would say the fact that we're actually delivering a program that incentivizes landowners to delay harvesting in favor of being paid for carbon is really impressive. I'm very proud of that achievement and the fact that we're now in a scale-up phase to make it more widely available. I'm also really proud of the work that we've done in research and development around climate-focused forest management and climate adaptive silviculture. We also just completed a podcast series where I was the host which was more of a fun thing than anything else. But through this I got to interview some cool people who are doing great work in this forest region. We also created this great series of videos called Our Changing Forest , you can find them through our YouTube channel. Those are directed at landowners or practitioners to learn about the effects of climate change on the forest and what you can do about it to increase forest resilience and carbon storage.

Additional Resources:

Community Forests International YouTube Channel :

Community Forests International Our Changing Forest Video Series

Below the Canopy Podcast: https://below-the-canopy.captivate.fm/listen

CFI's Climate-Adaptive Silviculture decision tree and other resources can be found: https://forestsinternational.org/resources/