Across Forests and Continents: Meet Jamila Milne

Jamila Milne has never met a challenge she didn't want to take on, whether it's restoring a forest or learning an entirely new landscape.

Originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, Jamila earned her Bachelor of Forestry Science from the University of Canterbury in 2022 before joining OneFortyOne New Zealand Forests as a Resources Forester, a role that took her from field work into inventory, modelling, and forest health. Earlier still, she spent time monitoring remnant Kahikatea forest on New Zealand's West Coast, a temperate rainforest region on the South Island, work that helped shape a restoration plan for the site and gave her an early taste for the kind of hands-on, long-view thinking that forestry demands.

That same curiosity brought her to Ontario this past summer for a three-month placement with the Ontario Woodlot Association, part of the Young Professional Foresters' Exchange Program run by the Canadian Institute of Forestry, alongside partner organizations in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She spent her days measuring LiDAR calibration plots, working alongside Algonquin College's Forest Technician students in the field, and getting to know Ontario's private woodlot owners, whose reasons for caring for their land range from maple syrup to recreation to simply loving the bush. A visit to the Canadian Forest Service's insect labs in Sault Ste. Marie, where she saw firsthand the fight against pests like emerald ash borer and hemlock woolly adelgid, rounded out a placement that was as much about people as it was about science.

When she wasn't in the field, Jamila was out exploring: canoeing Ontario's lakes, mountain biking local trails, road tripping through cottage country, and taking in a powwow in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. Somewhere along the way, she also developed a genuine appreciation for butter tarts and can confirm that Canadian maple syrup earns every bit of its reputation.

Her placement may be over, but Jamila isn't going anywhere just yet. She plans to keep calling Canada home for now, with plenty more adventures on the horizon, including running a marathon.

Women in Wood is thrilled to welcome Jamila as one of our newest members, and we can't wait to see where her curiosity takes her next.