STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE FACULTY OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

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1 Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE FACULTY OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Introduction In the next decade, New Brunswick and Canada will face unprecedented environmental challenges with profound economic consequences. Climate change, sustainable development of forest and water resources, conserving biodiversity, the transition to renewable energy, the growing importance of environmental health, and creating the social, economic, and technological systems required to build a better province will be high priorities for business, governments, and civil society. Professors, students, and staff from the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management (FOREM) at UNB create the new ideas and scientific understanding necessary to sustain our provinceʼs communities, industries, and ecosystems. For more than 100 years, we have educated the young women and men who manage our forests, rivers, wildlife, and wetlands. These renewable resources and the services our ecosystems provide are the basis of our collective wealth and well-being. We believe that as society increasingly recognizes the critical role the environment plays in sustaining our communities and economy, the need for professional foresters, natural resource and environmental managers and scientists will only grow. The longterm outlook for our graduates is exciting. This strategic plan is the result of many hours of consultation among our faculty and staff and written comments from several of our closest collaborators. It is the starting point for a discussion with our stakeholders--our students, the governments and firms that employ our graduates, our alumni, our research partners and the environmental community in our province and region. We seek your advice and ideas as we prioritize our efforts over the next three to five years. We welcome your suggestions. Donald W. Floyd, Ph.D. Interim Dean FOREM Strategic Plan! 1

2 Mission The Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at UNB educates professional foresters, natural resource and environmental managers, engineers and scientists. We create new knowledge about our environment and promote its stewardship through teaching, research, and outreach. Vision We are a recognized global leader in education and research in the fields of forestry and natural resources and environmental management. Values We believe that public education has the ability to transform lives and shape the future. We encourage collegiality and respect one anotherʼs ideas and discourse. We recognize that we are dealing with complex and sometimes fragile systems that require appropriate caution and humility as well as keen intellect. Strengths UNB produces the best forest management planners in North America. This is a core strength and it will remain a central part of our identity and mission. One of the Facultyʼs traditional strengths has been its undergraduate forest management program which emphasizes the application of quantitative and geographic analysis to produce multiple values. Our graduates are recruited by governments and firms throughout the United States and Canada. Graduates in our new Environment and Natural Resources degree program share the strengths that are the hallmarks of our 100 years of tradition: strong analytical skills applied to the biophysical sciences and the ability to communicate effectively. We have very strong research and graduate programs in watershed management, forest science, forest management, wildlife management, GIS and remote sensing, meteorology, wood science, and resource-related social science. The Faculty has the largest Ph.D. program (by degree) in the University. Our graduate enrolment has stabilized at about 80 students as a result of the new Masterʼs of Environmental Management (MEM) program. We may be close to capacity for research-based graduate students but there is some room for expansion in our course-based masterʼs programs. FOREM Strategic Plan! 2

3 90 Graduate Headcount PhD MEM MFE MF MScFE MScF Total Grad We have achieved very high National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) scores. According to the most recent data available (2007) our fourth year students rated their level of academic challenge and active and collaborative learning experiences above the 90th percentile for all reporting universities. Scores for studentfaculty interaction, and enriching educational experience were substantially above the UNB benchmarks. A growing undergraduate program in Environment and Natural Resources. The New B.Sc. in Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) admitted its first students in AY The program now enrols 54 undergraduate students in three concentrations: wildlife management, water resources and environmental management. If we continue to admit 15 to 20 students each year, enrolment should stabilize between 60 and 80 in The Faculty is one of the leading forestry, natural resources and environmental research centres in Canada. We generated about $4 million in research grants and contracts per year from 2003 to That amount will increase substantially in 2010 because of a large National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) strategic network grant on innovative wood products and building design and a Community University Research Alliance project on sustainable forest management. FOREM Strategic Plan! 3

4 Research funding is not an end in itself. Our research partners choose to work with us because of our internationally recognized strengths in scientific discovery and our ability to educate highly qualified professionals Research Grants and Contracts Forestry WSTC ESDRC Soils/Watershed Meighan Molson Dunn Total Weaknesses Undergraduate enrolments in forest ecosystem management (FEM) are low and enrolments in Forest Engineering (FE) are very low. Despite steady growth in our new ENR B.Sc. program, overall enrolment is about one-half of its 2001 level. Part of this decline can be attributed to the change from 5-year programs to 4-year programs beginning in Because Faculty budgets at UNB are largely determined by undergraduate enrolment, FOREM has lost faculty positions through retirement that are unlikely to be filled until this trend is reversed. There were only two applicants for the B.Sc. in Forest Engineering for fall The forest engineering program has an excellent reputation, dedicated faculty and it received very strong support in its most recent reaccreditation report. But it is not sustainable with so few students. The interim dean has reluctantly recommended suspending enrolment in the program. A final decision by the Vice President Academic is pending. Faculty members who teach in the FE program are in the process of developing a proposal for a new degree program tentatively titled ecosystem engineering. FOREM Strategic Plan! 4

5 Undergraduate enrolment continues to be our most significant challenge. As of January 2010, there were 54 students in the ENR program, 77 students in the FEM program and 22 students in the FE program. We are cautiously optimistic about our numbers for AY The number of applicants is up by about 10 percent over last year. We do not communicate effectively with our stakeholders. Our capacity to communicate with our administrators, employers, research partners, professional managers, and landowners has diminished over the past decade. For several years our websites were not well coordinated and until recently, no one had designated responsibility for external communication. We lack an effective outreach and extension program. As a public university, UNB and the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management in particular have an obligation to provide continuing education for environmental and resource management professionals as well as landowners. FOREM has been a leader in providing on-line instruction in geographic information systems and remote sensing but the province and the university do not provide regular informal continuing education programs for the more than 40,000 private forest landowners in New Brunswick. These programs are important because they increase our visibility and build constituencies. FOREM Strategic Plan! 5

6 Opportunities We can grow our graduate programs, including course-based masterʼs degrees. The Masterʼs of Environmental Management degree is early in its evolution. This year the curriculum was reshaped to emphasize management tools including environmental assessment and applications of geographic information systems. We should increase faculty participation in supervision of students and establish a reasonable target for each entering cohort. We believe that this can become a very strong degree that attracts a cohort of 12 to 15 new students each year. We must apply our proven research and teaching skills to emerging issues associated with climate change and renewable energy. It seems reasonable to assume that the related issues of climate change and the adoption of renewable energy resources will become dominate issues in the region over the next decade. Both of these issues will directly affect forests, watersheds and wildlife; areas where have existing strengths. We believe we can take advantage of our leadership in these subjects to increase our visibility and our enrolments. We should demonstrate leadership in forest management through certification of University forests. The University is reconsidering its plan for managing its forests. The Board of Governors established the Creighton Conservation Forest in December This provides an opportunity to recast the portion of the forests not scheduled for development. We believe the UNB forest lands should be a model for forest management in the province. Certification is an important first step in this process. We must become the leader for integrating the Universityʼs efforts in the environment. UNB has notable strengths for addressing components of the environment in several faculties, but we lack a mechanism to capture the synergy of our expertise. Our two campuses currently offer seven undergraduate programs and ten graduate degrees focused on the environment. 1 Thirteen academic units offer courses related to the environment. Many of our strongest research faculties and departments are engaged in environmental research. In an era of scarce financial resources, examining the structure of UNBʼs environmental programs makes sense. It seems reasonable to assume that one outcome of the Universityʼs strategic planning process will be to seek operating efficiencies that preserve or strengthen academic excellence. We see a compelling case for combining several departments and faculties into a single entity focused on environmental science, engineering, forestry, and environmental management with strong undergraduate programs as well as strength in research and graduate studies. 1 B.Sc. F., B.Sc.FE., B.Sc. Envtl. Biol. & Marine Biol. (SJ); B.Sc. Envtl. Biol. (F); B.Sc. Envtl. Geochem.; B.Sc. Envt. and N.R.; Env. Studies Prog.; M.Sc. & Ph.D. Biol.; M. Eng. Envtl. Std.; M.Sc.F., M.F.; M. Sc. FE., M.FE, MEM, Ph.D. MBA For. Prod. Mrktng.; M.Phil. Policy Studies-Sustainable Development. FOREM Strategic Plan! 6

7 Threats The current UNB budget formula is based almost entirely on undergraduate enrolment. Units with strong graduate and research programs and relatively low undergraduate enrolments are being reduced more rapidly than units with larger B.A. and B.Sc. enrolments. Over the next decade, this formula will reduce New Brunswickʼs capacity for research in the environmental sciences and forestry, and the training of highly qualified professionals at precisely the time society is confronting increasingly serious and complex environmental problems. Priorities 1. Educating the scientists and managers who will sustain the regionʼs forests, natural resources and enhance its environmental quality remains our first priority. Our goal is to provide an education that integrates the biophysical and social sciences with the quantitative and analytical skills and professional ethos necessary to understand and manipulate complex ecological systems sustainably. Maintain the quality and rebuild the enrolment in our undergraduate degree programs through investment in recruiting, outreach and communication. Expand enrolment in our course-based masterʼs programs to a cohort of 12 to 15 new students per year. 2. Maintain our leadership as a centre for research and graduate studies in forests, natural resources and environmental management. Maintain total graduate enrolment at students Grow annual research grants and contracts to $5 million per year. 3. Demonstrate our leadership in sustainable forest management through stewardship of the Universityʼs forest lands. Develop and implement a plan for the Creighton Conservation Forest. Achieve certification of UNB forest lands. 4. Lead UNB efforts to create a new integrated organization that focuses on environmental science, forestry, engineering and natural resources management with strong undergraduate programs as well as strength in research and graduate studies. 5. Implement an effective continuing education strategy that focuses on environmental and resource management professionals. FOREM Strategic Plan! 7