The Strand: What year are you and what are your majors?
Maximus Caron: I’m in fourth year and my majors are forest conservation and human geography, and then I have a minor in political science.
What is your research?
I was working with the City of Mississauga as an invasive species forester and summer student. A lot of what we were doing was invasive species control and removal, but a really cool project that I got to do was looking at where major roadways, railroads, and public infrastructure works were, and identifying invasive species along these corridors so that we can then do joint work with organisations [such as Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific, Metrolinx] to control and monitor patches that we found. I got to reach out to [them], and I asked, ‘Oh, would you mind controlling this’ or ‘Hey, you’d notice these populations on your property, they’re extremely hazardous, let us come in and control it for you.’ By doing so, I was able to create an entire database of any invasive species that we have previously mapped or identified along all of these networks and corridors, which allows us to have more cross lateral communication and cooperation with other entities that aren’t necessarily government or commercial but rather like the railroads or national entities.
Why is this an important thing to research and how can this information be used in the future?
One of the biggest spreads of invasive species is through rail corridors, road corridors, hydro utility areas, and any super disturbed areas that have a lot of traffic and movement because they often spread through wind. When you have a massive freight train come through, it can take the seeds and it can blow them way down the line or it can get stuck on the cars themselves and then fall off later on. Ontario and North America are at risk for invasive species because of the Columbian Exchange and just decades and centuries of colonisation and people from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania bringing their native and domestic products from their home countries. They can understand how to cultivate these crops, but in North America, we don’t have those species. So, when they were brought over, there was a huge lack of natural predators and barriers to prevent the species from just spreading out of control in the wild. The first step to controlling invasive species is you have to be able to identify and understand where they exist because they are one of the biggest threats to our agroforestry and our environmental economy.
How did you get this position?
I applied through the City of Mississauga website, and they called back, and then I interviewed. I think I applied to four jobs, and this was the only one that even sent me a response. I think what helps was that I had prior experience with invasive species through my work study. My work study was looking at beach heart disease, which is an invasive plant species. It’s a fungus pathogen complex from Europe and was brought over accidentally in the late 1800s.
What advice do you have for students looking to do research?
Apply everywhere. Don’t think that just because you’re nearing the end of the semester that [you’re] like, ‘Oh, I’m done, I’m out of options.’ I applied to this job like right in April and I started in May. And you just got to be persistent. You’re gonna face a lot of barriers and a lot of walls, but you just have to keep applying, because eventually one of those walls will have a door and one of those doors will eventually open.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
