Urban Outreach Team Member at Parks Canada in Vancouver, BC
I have been working for the Parks Canada Agency this summer as a Public Outreach and Education Team member, focused on educating members on the public on different topics such as species at risk, wildlife safety, and connectivity with nature. I have gained many skills throughout this position such as dialogic interpretation, leadership and organization. I have also developed my strengths in problem solving, communication and teamwork during this position because of the nature of working in a small team and talking to members of the public. Co-op has allowed me to expand my professionalism and networking and having the experience provided throughout the work terms will help me with career path later down the line.
Dean Rob Kozak, Dr. Feng Jiang, and Dr. Taraneh Sowlati
UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship wishes to congratulate Dr. Feng Jiang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Wood Science, for winning the Faculty’s Research Award.
Feng’s Research
Dr. Feng Jiang’s research focuses on valorizing undervalued forest biomass and promoting bioeconomy. By using advanced chemistry and nanotechnology, his research has advanced the renewable and sustainable materials development by creating a broad portfolio of bio-based products including textile fibres, packaging films, hydrogel, and foam, showing broad application potentials for sustainable packaging, insulation, health monitoring, and structural components. Feng’s high impact and innovative research on using cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) to enhance the overall mechanical and conductive properties of ionic conductive hydrogels has opened a new area for the use of CNFs in emerging health monitoring field, and it has been cited over 300 times since 2020.
His recent research on sustainable packaging materials development has received broad public attentions and has been covered by over 300 different media, including CBC, CTV, Global News, The Canadian Press, BNN Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, the Weather Network, and Vancouver Sun. His research also strongly supports the bioeconomy of First Nation community, and he has established collaboration with Wet’suwet’en First nation to develop sustainable foam products for packaging and thermal insulation using their post-harvest forest residues.
About the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Research Award
This award recognizes the outstanding research accomplishments of a faculty member (Assistant or Associate) early in their career, based on the quality, quantity, and impact of their research in the previous two years. Each department head, in consultation with faculty members, selects one nominee, and from those nominees, a committee, that includes a senior faculty member from each department, selects an award winner. The committee was lucky to have three excellent nominees to select from, reflecting excellence, depth, and breadth of research in the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship.
Marine Education Ambassador at Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre in Gibsons, BC
For my first Co-op work term, I have been working at an aquarium called the Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Center on the Sunshine Coast. As a Marine Education Ambassador, my tasks varied widely, from caring for animals such as octopus, crabs, sea stars, anemones and rockfish to cleaning up marine debris from our waters. Every day’s tasks were vastly different from each other. Over this work term, I have gained a lot of practical knowledge about the identification of marine species, how to properly care for and feed aquatic animals, the proper protocols in the collect and release of animals and how to engage the public of all ages in meaningful ways about endangered species in our waters. This placement has provided me with so much hands-on experience and I am so grateful that I have gotten to participate in the celebration of our marine life here in the Pacific Northwest. This job has shown me the intriguing behaviors of animals and the biodiversity teeming underneath our waters; I will never look at the ocean the same way again!
Park Worker at Metro Vancouver/Parks in Langley, BC
In my first work term I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to be working for Metro Vancouver in Derby Reach Regional Park as a park worker. As a park worker we maintain the cleanliness and safety of the park and it’s trails while operating various pieces of equipment, repairing buildings and structures as well as aiming to incorporate the public into one of Metro Vancouver’s most popular nature parks. By having a presence in the park we are able to interact with the public and educate individuals on Metro Vancouver bylaws and aspects of the park such as the Fraser river which it is situated next to! A typical shift varies greatly in this work environment and can include landscaping and maintaining grass, trees, shrubs, etc., invasive species removal, aiding injured wildlife, ensuring park users are following bylaws and preserving the park and its features through educating. This position has allowed me to grow in many ways and develop my strengths of work ethic, independence in completing tasks, working in a well functioning team and communication skills with both coworkers and the public. Further, through working in parks it opens possible future paths for myself as well as allowing me to incorporate aspects of what I have learned in my degree into the real world. I would certainly recommend this position to anyone that enjoys being outdoors everyday while gaining good experience working in their area of study.
Business Strategy Intern at C-Change Labs Inc. in Vancouver, BC
For my second co-op term, I was honoured to be a Mitacs business strategy intern at C-Change-Labs Inc. My primary responsibility is to upload new Environmental Products Declarations (EPDs) through the EC3 web tool, find and fix incorrect EPD data, identify digitization rules, and analyze the life cycle results. Through this research experience, I better understood how life cycle assessment is used to evaluate a product’s environmental impacts by browsing hundreds of EPDs.
Moreover, I found that my data analysis skills and academic writing abilities had improved significantly during this period.
Co-op Student Manufacturing at Western Forest Products in Port Alberni, BC
This is my second term with Western. I stayed at APD for four more months, met with interesting people and stay busy almost every day. Strongly recommend joining the Co-op program if you consider working in the wood industry in western Canada.
Logistics Summer Student at Mosaic Forest Management in Nanaimo, BC
My second summer with Mosaic has been unreal! Recently, I’ve been writing a report on beaver berms. In this photo I’m standing on a ‘beaver buster’, an innovative way Mosaic works with beavers in the area to ensure habitat is maintained as well as road safety and quality. The regulator on the end ensures that no matter how strong of a dam the beaver builds, the integrity of the neighboring road will not waver due to an overflowing pond. When the water reaches a certain level, the buster diverts it safely through a culvert to the downside of the road.
Jr. Resource Technologist at Ministry of Forests in Fort St. John, BC
For my second work term, I am working in Northeast BC as part of the Crown Land Authorizations team of the BC Ministry of Forests. Much of the northeast region is associated with Treaty 8, which was signed in 1899 as a means to establish peace between the federal government and various First Nations. This job gives me the opportunities to understand land negotiations and reconcilliation efforts between the Treaty 8 First Nations and the Provincial Government.
My job typically revolves around looking into land tenure applications and writing land-use reports on them. Most information on parcels of land (including history) are accessible through the Tantalis internal database, or through physical files/digital folders. Land use-reports allow me to make recommendations to a decision maker based on the public interest, first nations concerns, economic, social and environmental factors, and conflicts with pre-existing land uses, among many other considerations. When I’m not working on those, I often help other departments with field work.
Forestry co-op has given me the chance to make personal relationships with the local First Nations and learn more about their culture. I’ve also gotten a better grasp of the processes behind applications and crown land sales or allocation. These are valuable opportunities I would not have gotten if not for the co-op program.
