Canadian Forest Service

That's the situation Dr. Lucas Breau faced this summer.

He's a wildfire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service at the Atlantic Forestry Research Center in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Here he is

I have a site that I specifically call the problem child because every t- every time I went to that site, it was damaged in one way or another.

[scoffs] There are a lot of questions and a lot of sleepless nights about how you're going to make this work, especially since it's something that you think is very important.

Hi, my name is Lucas Breau.

I am a wildfire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, uh, at the Atlantic Forestry Research Center.

So wildfires in Atlantic Canada have historically been few and far between.

Neither does climate change and neither does genetic diversity.

So they really went across borders and Penn State, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Canadian Forest Service are all parts of this.

So I think it's – We talked about this with American Chestnut.

There's so many things we lost, and how can we best use what we know in technology and learn from what we know of the past also to help prevent these trees from disappearing and give them a future forward? And it's – like you'll see a lot of young – I think emerald ash borer doesn't really attack a tree until it's big enough, which takes about 10 years.

Although forestry wasn't my original career path, I had initially considered becoming a pilot.

After completing a bachelor's in political science, I went on to pursue a master's degree in forestry, and that decision led to me a career in forest policy across different levels of government, including the Canadian Forest Service.

And today I work as a consultant in the forestry communication space, and I'm delighted to be part of this conversation.

A warm welcome to Branching Out Ritika and welcome to our guests Claire Depardieu and Maria Nieschnik, co-leads of the IUFRO task force that deals with forest living labs, 4LIVs in short, for sustainable climate adaptation.

Hi, everyone.

Hi, Gerda.

My name is Claire Depardieu, and I'm a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service at the Atlantic Forestry Centre in Fredericton, Canada.

I hold a PhD in biological and environmental sciences from the University of Lorraine in France.

And then she sent some standalone recordings answering more questions, and then after the break, we're featuring excerpts from her own indigenous fire ecology podcast, Good Fire, with Matt Kristof, making this a real community effort and a fire mosaic episode indeed.

So this ologist got her master's and PhD in hazard management and fire science, and works as a fire social scientist for the Canadian Forest Service.

She is a Métis woman from Treaty 6 territory on land now known as Canada.

She is well-schooled on this.

Fire has a root meaning fire.

And ecology, the study of where we live.

So we'll be covering cultural burns, drip torches, forest debris, napping on the fire line, evacuations, and more with fire scientist, advocate, podcast host, Canadian Forest Service employee, scholar, and indigenous fire ecologist, Dr. Amy Kristensen.

[upbeat music] Ologies.