“Stay loose until rigor counts – be open to anything and look everywhere. Be open to international opportunities, even areas you don’t think you’re interested in because opportunities are there. UBC students have a solid background in forestry and should keep an open mind.” – this is Ken MacDicken’s advice for students and alumni, and it has guided him through a rewarding and well-traveled career.
Ken grew up in Western Washington, near Snohomish, on a farm with woodlands where he spent quite a bit of his youth. When he began his degree at Washington State University, he had not yet considered Forestry as a career. It wasn’t until 3 years into his degree, when he left school and went to the Philippines with the Peace Corps, that he realized his path. While working with a tribe in shifting cultivation, he decided to return and finish his bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Policy and Administration, as well as a degree in General Agriculture and Forestry.
Once this was completed, he headed back to the Philippines to work for another year and then did a Masters at the University of Hawaii. Though it wasn’t on his radar, 7 years after completing his Masters a friend who was on sabbatical from UBC visited him and suggested he do his PhD. Ken contemplated it and looked into different programs, including UBC, Oxford and Yale. His final decision – UBC. According to Ken, “In terms of real forestry, the quality of the faculty and the fact that it was in the Pacific North West – these all made UBC the best choice for me. I’ve not looked back and have been pleased with the results, contacts and experiences”. Starting in 1991, he finished his PhD in 1994. During this time he commuted from Western Washington, where he was living, and continued to work for several organizations. At one point he traveled to Bhutan for a four month assignment in the middle of nowhere. During the day he worked and in the evening, with no distractions and nothing else to do, he wrote his dissertation by the light of a wood stove and laptop with an external battery. He highly recommends this to others writing their dissertations, he accomplished quite a bit.
Ken’s fondest memories at UBC Forestry are of the graduate student population and the faculty. “There were people from many different places and perspectives. Plus the faculty has such a broad range of skills and specialties; everywhere you looked there was something new to learn”. He also still remembers his committee members fondly, including Dr. Tim Ballard, Dr. Tony Kozak, Dr. Hans Schrier and Dr. Hamish Kimmins.
His career has included working in 34 countries during and after completing his degrees. The companies he has worked for include: Winrock International where he ran a regional forestry research network covering 13 countries in Asia and became Director of Forestry and Natural Resources; the Asian Development Bank as a forester for the Asia West region managing a portfolio of grants and loans of approximately $300 million; the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) as the Deputy Director General; working as the Director of Research and Development for a large plantation company; and the World Bank Group as a forester.
His most rewarding work was with the Peace Corps, specifically, “the work that I did with the Mangayn hill tribe in the Philippines, because you could directly see that people benefited”. He was able to set up a school, helped treat people who were gravely ill, and introduced a new forest fallow farming system that improved crop yields by some 40%.
For the last 3 years he has been working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as the Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader for the Global Forestry Resource Assessment (FRA) in Rome, Italy. His team does the assessment for 234 countries and territories, so he continues to do some traveling, and meets with interesting people all over the world. The most rewarding part of his position is working to make the FRA, the only global data source about forest resources which is produced each five years, more relevant and useful for stakeholders and key forestry users. The next FRA is perfectly timed with Ken’s retirement in 2015, at which time he is looking forward to moving back to their home in the Pacific Northwest, doing a bit of consulting and writing, and watching his 5 grandchildren grow.
Overall, Ken feels very fortunate, as many of the places he has worked in are ones that people pay a lot of money to visit. “There are many times that I’ve reflected seeing an amazing view or cultural setting, and felt like I’ve been the luckiest guy in the world because I’m getting paid to be and work there”.
As for the secret to his success, he believes his wife Maria and family deserve a lot of the credit for where he is and what’s he’s been able to accomplish.
From Branchlines Winter 2013