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Final Report Bachelor Plus Program 2014/2015

University of New Brunswick (UNB), Fredericton

by Till Bause (tillbause@yahoo.de)

Saint John, 06/09/2015

My year in Canada is almost over. I can already tell you I had an awesome time with lots of

new experiences. Not only gathered during classes and in Fredericton where I took two

terms at UNB. There was much more besides and after all those interesting courses that all

together added up to a great year that just seemed to fly by. There were lots of interesting

people I met and things I learned at school, during leisure, at the internship, or while

travelling. Getting to know them and talking to them reveals the parallels and differences

between our cultures and ways of thinking. It can be so informatory to just talk with

Canadians about their understanding of forestry or current topics like climate change and

energy consumption. Although the latter can as well be a little threatening, as a sustainable

energy consumption and generation seems to be less a matter of concern for more people in

this country of far distances and huge pickup trucks. But still, one of the most important

things I learned once more: Never judge too early, if you have to judge at all! People will

surprise you, and there are many that are as concerned about topics like climate change as

you are. Just try to get to know them a little and understand their positions. In other words be

curious and try to be open-minded! You will learn a lot!

I suppose you do not read this report without a reason. Maybe you are planning to apply for

an exchange or already got your acceptance to go. So I will try to share my experiences with

you and give you some more detailed information! I hope you will know a little bit more about

what to expect from studying abroad and especially what living and studying in Fredericton is

like after reading this.

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Walking bridge across the Saint John River in Fredericton, picture: T. Bause

Fredericton – the city

Fredericton is a small city located on the Saint John River. The River divides the city into two

parts. For a student the southern part is the more interesting one, as both of Fredericton’s

universities are located on this side, as is the downtown with most of the bars, clubs, shops,

and the local brewery Picaroons. They brew some very good beers. As there are many trees

along Fredericton’s roads and some nice parks, like ‘Odell’, the city has a very green

appearance. Most of the Canadians are more than helpful. Often it only takes seconds until

the next Canadian asks an exchange student - standing around thinking about where to go to

- if he or she needs any help. Grocery Stores are available all over the city. And the

friendliness of the eastern Canadians even forces them to say ‘Sorry’ if you almost run them

over with your shopping cart. So if you don’t want to feel bad better drive it carefully and be

prepared to say ‘Sorry’ yourself. As the bus network is not very well I recommend buying a

used bike (kijiji.ca). Only few Canadians go by bike but cycling is no problem at all except for

the steep hill you have to climb to reach the uptown area. Though, after Christmas the snow

will probably force you to walk or wait for the busses. So better try to find a place to stay

close to campus.

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View along the Saint John River in Fredericton, picture: T. Bause

Travel Preparation

I used google flights to get a first overview of what prices are like for going to Canada. When

choosing the route make sure not to enter the US as it makes the entry unnecessarily

complicated. I booked a one-way flight from Frankfurt to Halifax for circa 360 Euros (I booked

5 month in advance). Start looking for flights early and if you are not sure if you want to go

somewhere else in Canada after your stay in Fredericton, I recommend a one-way flight.

That gives you the flexibility to fly back from anywhere and a round trip would need to be

rescheduled (extra fee) anyway.

The UNB has a mandatory health insurance you have to buy. It costs 644.00 CAD for the

two terms. As it is not valid for the internship, the time you might be already here before the

fall term starts and the time you might use for travelling after the internship you have to pay

for an additional private insurance. Unfortunately you can only get international health

insurances starting at the day you enter the foreign country, which forces you to have a

double insurance and makes you pay double, too. I found reasonable conditions at the

Hanse Merkur.

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Finding an accommodation in Fredericton is by far easier than in Freiburg. The good

network of Bachelor Plus alumni made it possible for us to already find a place to stay from

Germany. I lived in a house downtown on 631 Charlotte St. (picture below) where I was the

fourth generation of forestry exchange students from Freiburg. I had a nice room of

approximately 12 m2 on the ground floor. It was furnished with a wide bed, a desk and a

chair, a wardrobe, a dresser, and with a small rack I built using my landlords nice

woodworking tools. Together with me there were 9 people living in the house, which was no

problem as the kitchen was big enough and we had 4 bathrooms. The rent was 330 CAD per

month and I needed approximately another 300-400 CAD for food and so on. Depends on

how much travelling on the weekends and how much bar visits were involved.

Clothing for the winter is best to be bought in Canada. Second hand shops like Value

Village have several thick winter jackets for round about 40 CAD and also winter boots.

Clothing is a little cheaper here anyway. Prepared like that, air temperatures of -36°C were

no problem.

631 Charlotte Street, Fredericton, picture: T. Bause

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Studying and Classes

As I learned during the fall term that classes here in Canada involve much more work than in

Germany, I strongly recommend not to take more than four (approx. 12 Credit Hours) per

term. Normally you have to write at least two exams (a midterm and a final) and hand in one

paper per class.

We started the fall term with the Forestry Field Camp. A class I would strongly recommend

to anybody as it gives you at the same time a great first insight into Canadian forestry and a

good chance to get to know many Canadian fellow students. The fishing and hunting camp

where we stayed was located at a beautiful lake (picture below) and our hosts were really

nice. We learned a lot as everyday 4 students went out together with one Prof. and we had

lots of presentations and discussions in the evening. Nonetheless, there was still time to end

the days at a nice campfire close to the lake.

Lake at the Forestry field camp, picture: T. Bause

Non Timber Forest Products is a class dealing with all the other products a well-managed

forest can supply. We had guest speakers ranging from the maple syrup industry over a

‘hard-wood log mushroom grower’ to First Nations experts. The only drawback is that there is

some repetition in this class. Some slides are shown three or four times and the basic

sustainability principles are repeated more often than necessary. Nonetheless, the way of

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thinking that is taught is interesting and extends a forestry approach focusing on timber

production only.

The highlights of Wildlife Investigational Techniques were for sure the deer necropsy,

electro fishing, small mammal trapping and radio telemetry on the campus. But there were

several more practical exercises as it is a true hands-on experience class. After catching not

a single bird with our mist nets during the first class we were more than relieved when a

Northern Flying Squirrel (plus several different mice) found its way into one of our traps the

second week.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management was the complete opposite as it contained three

theoretical lectures per week in which we got lots of input on biodiversity, its role in society,

different management concepts and their advantages and disadvantages. As the Prof. did

not want to give away his presentations lots of writing was required during class-time. But

together with the textbook (an online version is available) both, the midterm as well as the

final exam were doable.

As I was interested in more than 4 classes for the winter term I started after the Christmas

break by visiting as many of them as I could during the first week. It is no problem to switch

classes within the first weeks. Just ask and talk to the professors and the UNB staff. They

are almost always available and very helpful and understanding. After the first week I had

found the four classes I wanted to visit the most.

One of them was Conservation Biology. We learned about different strategies in

conserving biodiversity and nature in general, and certain species in particular. Especially the

possibility to see the parallels between what I learned in Freiburg and what was taught here

was educational (we had a class dealing with almost the same topic in my minor). In the end

we all had to give a two-person-presentation on a certain ecoregion: what is its role for

biodiversity, what threatens it, and what is or should be done to conserve it. As I joined in

later I had to prepare my presentation on Patagonia and its southern beech forests alone. It

didn’t feel like any disadvantage. The midterm term exam was not easy but fair.

My second class was Intro to GIS in Forestry I. I took it to refresh the GIS skills we learned

in Freiburg. That totally worked out. Though we started with the same online course from

ESRI I already knew from Freiburg, here these units had to be finished after the first 2

weeks. After that we got data representing the inventory of the UNB woodlot. Lots of

interesting and practical tasks dealing with this data had to be solved. The short lecture on

Monday was only for answering questions and to offer help with tasks that you could not

solve on your own. You can decide when to work on the tasks and you can do that using

your own computer or the ones at school. So this class gives you some flexibility which can

be nice when other things are due. Just do not procrastinate and it is no problem to pass the

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two online exams, which were composed of theoretical questions on the software and solving

practical problems like georeferencing an aerial picture or digitizing a new road.

The only course I would not recommend to take is Forest Watershed and Fire

Management. Not because it would not be interesting or that I would not have learned

enough. It is just far too much work for the amount of credit hours you get, and much more

importantly, the lectures are badly prepared and either confusing or soporific. The watershed

part confuses more than it explains. The only preparation of the professor is carrying the

textbook underneath his arm to the classroom. There he develops charts on the board he

can hardly follow himself. Besides that almost every week a paper is due that easily takes

two full days of studying to be accomplished and still does not feel like delivering good work.

The fire management is a little better but is presented so boring that my motivation

decreased even further. The final exam was incredibly long. Still, the topics themselves are

interesting and with the textbook and the other material I learned a lot.

Last but not least I took Urban Forestry and Conservation Management. I really enjoyed

this class, as we got lots of practical information, we dealt almost for the first time with the

management of trees and forests within cities, and we had a perfectly fitting practical

problem to solve for the main exam: a tree trail to get to know different tree species growing

on the UNB campus. That included some practical GIS work as well as the short but

informative presentation of the relevant trees and a suggestion of an efficient way to make

the information available on mobile devices like a smart phone. Besides we went on a field

trip with the urban tree care services and heard several interesting lectures given by the

professor himself and several experienced guests working in that sector. What are typical

threats for and from trees in the urban environment? How can you deal with them and what

should a sustainable urban forestry management include? The exams were always fair and if

you prepared well a good mark was guaranteed.

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Leisure

UNB Woodsman competition in Fredericton, picture: T. Bause

Visiting the UNB Woodman’s Team for their every morning training hours at 6:30 is a lasting

experience. They will gladly show you how to do the Kettle boil, how to chop some wood, do

the quarter split or the pole climb and how to use the bucksaw. After making it out of the

warm bed the sunrise above the Saint John River is a good compensation for the loss of

sleep. The UNB Gym and especially the rock wall are nice places to do some sports, too.

As my landlord is more than well-equipped we could always borrow a canoe from him and I

had a free bike for my usage. We canoed up and down the Saint John and the Nashwaak

River, went together with him to Spednic Lake at the US border for a day-trip, had lots of

camp fire evenings, brewed our own beer (a good way to save money here as alcohol is

much more expensive), and cycled to the Killarney lake as long as it was warm enough to go

swimming. In the winter we went out to the forest camp of a friend of my landlord to build a

shelter hut for the maple syrup boiling in spring, to cut free the sap lines and to make

firewood for the boiling stove. Now I have a good souvenir: original Canadian self-made

maple syrup.

Weekend trips I would definitely recommend are driving down to Grand Manan Island and

the Bay of Fundy to visit the Fundy National Park and Hope Well Rocks. Over the weekends

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the car rentals have special offers which are not too expensive when you have a driver

above 24 and some people to share the costs.

At the camp fire on Grand Manan Island, picture: T. Bause

Internship

Conny (one of my fellow students from Germany) and I did our internship at the Cape Breton

Highlands National Park. We found the place with the help of a UNB professor. Our advisor

had done his PhD with the professor. Using the relationships of your professors seems to be

a good way not only to find an internship at the university but also outside. The once we

asked all seemed to be happy to help out.

We had a great time at this rough and beautiful coastal landscape. The field work, where we

mainly collected data for browsing surveys on the hyper abundant moose population in the

park, was more than welcome after all the indoor studying. We hiked far into the back

country of the park to reach the different sample plots where we measured the regeneration

and the moose browsing. We learned how and why the plots were picked, collected the

relevant data, for which we needed to be able to identify all the different woody plants, and

saw an amazing landscape and some beautiful wildlife (e.g. moose and black bears) at

places where normally nobody goes to. Besides we had lots of navigation training using

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compass and GPS. The only disadvantages were that we had to start with some less

compelling data entry work due to too much snow still blocking the sample plots in May. And

we didn’t get any salary. Like in Germany internships and jobs at environmental authorities

are popular and there are more than enough volunteers. At least we could live for free in a

Parks Canada house, close to the office from where we would start together with the other

summer students and the employees for the field work. In the evenings I made a lot of use of

my fishing license and fought with millions of black flies and mosquitos over some nice brook

trout for supper. A mosquito net can be very valuable!

Crossing a river on our way back from a sample plot, picture: T. Bause

Travelling

As the two terms and the internship were done in June I still had lots of time to explore

Canada before the winter term in Freiburg starts. As I wanted to explore the east coast, I

bought an old used car before I left for the internship. Finding something appropriate is the

easiest part as the market for used vehicles in Fredericton is pretty big. Using Kijiji.ca you

can easily find what you are looking for. Finding an insurance company that is willing to

insure you with a German driving license is the much more difficult part. I only found a small

local company (D.W. Olts and Sons) that would do it and I had to pay 936 dollars for half a

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year. You can get a New Brunswick license and save some money but getting that takes

time, costs some money as well, and includes giving away your German license. Nobody

could tell me for sure if I would get it back afterwards. An international driving license is easy

to get as long as you are still in Germany and might make things a little less complicated but

probably not cheaper.

On our way back from a canoe weekend on Spednic Lake, picture: T. Bause

Equipped with my 15 year old Subaru I was able to reach many beautiful spots in the

Maritimes and New England. As the public transportation system in Canada is more or less

useless to reach National Parks and other remote places, or if you want to cross the border

to the US, an own vehicle is more or less necessary. I travelled from Cape Breton eastwards

and included Miramichi (salmon rivers with jumping fish), the Matapedia valley in Quebec,

the beautiful region Charlevoix above the St. Lawrence in Quebec, Quebec city and

Montreal, Vermont, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Maine and last but not least

Newfoundland, for which I was joined by my sister and my two cousins. I picked them up in

Halifax and we took the ferry from North Sydney to Port aux Basques (560 CAD for 4 adults

and one car, return trip). Usually I camped in National and Provincial Parks or stayed at

regular camp grounds (between 16 and 30 CAD or USD per night). Some highlights were the

back country camping (only 8 dollars per night) and hiking in the White Mountains, the

Festival d’été de Quebec, the Acadia and the Gros Morne National Park, some parts of the

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East Coast Trail in Newfoundland, and the whale watching. For me this camping trip was a

great way to get to know the country, its nature and wildlife, efforts taken to protect them, its

different forests and their management, and last but not least lots of different people from

almost everywhere in Canada and around the world.

I’m more than happy that the Bachelor Plus exchange Program and the scholarship helped

me to go abroad and broaden my mind! Thank you! I hope you will be able to make similar

experiences!

Till Bause

Coastline on the East Coast Trail, Newfoundland, picture: T. Bause