Forestry Research Advisory Council of Canada Annual Report for 1991

This report covers calendar 1991. Since 1983 the Forest Research Advisory Council of Canada (FRACC) has advised Forestry Canada on forestry research priorities and policies. In 1987 the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) agreed to establish forest research advisory groups in each jurisdiction, and requested FRACC to coordinate an annual countrywide review of forestry research priorities and concerns. Since then, and with the assistance and cooperation of the provincial and territorial research advisory bodies, FRACC has prepared an annual overview of forestry research priorities for CCFM; this report has subsequently been published in The Forestry Chronicle.Forestry Canada made its first annual report to Parliament in 1991. Council considers it a good beginning for a process that will be valuable in alerting Members of Parliament and the public to forestry issues and the importance of forestry research. During the year Forestry Canada made good progress in preparing mission statements for its establishments. Not only are these statements important in explaining the Department's role, but also the process of preparing them is equally important in building support and esprit de corps. FRACC is pleased to see Forestry Canada taking positive initiatives in other areas, namely, the inclusion of major research components in the new forestry agreements with the provinces; the Green Plan with its elements of forestry research and model forests; the progress made in biotechnology; and the development of the strategic research partnerships program with involvement of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and industry.Council makes the following recommendations:1. To better define the perceived scarcity of forestry scientists, Forestry Canada should promptly undertake or sponsor a study of the supply and demand for scientists in the various disciplines that make up forestry research.2. To foster a greater appreciation of the possibilities of a research career and to aid in establishing young scientists, Forestry Canada should provide more employment opportunities for undergraduate students through summer employment, participate fully with the universities in cooperative programs for graduate and undergraduate students, and enhance its "apprentice" type of programs for recent Ph.D. s such as post-doctorate fellowships both in-house and at the universities.3. Forestry Canada should expand the useful initiative of setting aside a relatively small portion of its budget in a fund to be used for following up quickly on promising new research approaches.4. To help ensure the sustainability of Canadian forest management, Forestry Canada should expand its in-house and cooperative research programs directed at a better understanding of the way forest ecosystems function.5. To expand research on integrated forest management, particularly the policy and socio-economic aspects, Forestry Canada should consult widely and explore the possibility of mounting cooperative research programs at national and regional levels involving its own forces, universities, provinces, industry, and non-government bodies such as the Institute for Research on Public Policy.6. Council strongly supports Forestry Canada's current effort to improve its technology transfer program to promote the application of research results; however, to meet the growing public demand for technical information on forestry and environmental matters, Forestry Canada should increase its emphasis on this aspect of technical information.7. To encourage scientists to work toward the application of their results, Forestry Canada should evaluate and modify, where possible, the scientists' rewards system so that it gives full recognition to technology transfer work including the preparation of effective "how-to" publications.8. Forestry Canada should ensure that research advisory bodies are in place for all its establishments, and should broaden the range of forest stakeholders who participate in these research advisory bodies and in those at the regional, provincial, and national levels.9. Forestry Canada should continue its emphasis on promoting high staff morale through participatory management, and should provide strong support to inter-establishment travel and dialogue, and for attendance at significant scientific conferences and workshops.10. To help prevent stagnation and encourage greater research productivity, Forestry Canada should increase opportunities for working sabbaticals and retraining of scientists and technical staff.11. To foster more long-range forestry research at universities in Canada, Forestry Canada should explore every avenue for implementing a program similar to the McIntyre-Stennis program in the United States.12. Forestry Canada should develop a method for bringing economic and social criteria to bear on selection of research projects and should incorporate this into its research planning process.Council will hold three meetings in 1992 and will give attention to the updating of the Forestry Research Inventory initiated in 1987 by Dr. A.J. Kayll; research execution, mechanisms, structures, and funding as distinct from planning processes; the document Sustainable Forests, A Canadian Commitment, with emphasis on the research aspects; further conclusions that might be drawn from the meetng with young scientists; means to encourage, support, and strengthen provincial and territorial research advisory bodies; further steps to strengthen technology transfer; Forestry Canada's headquarters forest economics program; forest workers' attitudes and training vis-à-vis environmental considerations in their daily work planning and execution; visiting a forest company's woodlands operations to learn their perceptions of research needs and views on research priority setting and management of research and technology transfer; and the major trends affecting the future of forestry and the implications for forestry research.