Life is a learning experience. Retirement is just another opportunity to learn. A forestry colleague had a career policy to change direction every 5 years, moving to completely different forestry fields. Many of us are security conscious with ambitions to move ever forward in a single chosen direction.

I had too much curiosity in my soul to just stay put, but was too security conscious to jump ship. My philosophy was to go with the flow. If there was an opening into a tunnel I wanted to see what was at the other end. Luckily I also had enough confidence to expect that a door would open for me when I got there. My daughter suggested I should write an article entitled "If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans" My experience in planning was that there would be a completely different door opening somewhere down the tunnel. I only had to walk through the door to discover what was on the other side.

Having made that point, I was also always security conscious; the result being a 36 year career with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. During those years I moved from development to management to research. Geographically this involved starting in head office (Toronto), north to Geraldton, south to North Bay and finally to Maple. And by 'chance' during that time (God's sense of humour!) a door opened, quite unexpectedly. On the other side I found myself in Kenya for four years, a fabulous learning experience.

When I returned to OMNR, the powers that be determined that I was least likely to rock the boat in a research role, studying forest tree seed. But I couldn't be a researcher in the organization without a post graduate degree, so the next door opened onto the campus of the University of Toronto. Once back in my research role, the world provided travel opportunities throughout North America and Europe. But the most significant door opened onto a forest tree seed research centre in Thailand. This was an ASEAN institution meaning the project involved working with scientists in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.

Both earlier jaunts were on a secondment basis from Ontario to CIDA in Ottawa to national governments in Africa and Asia. Despite radical changes, my seniority (hence security) continued through the Ontario civil service. On retirement other doors opened onto the world stage, each a significant learning experience, each being a significant change in terms of my forestry career. Other than my two major overseas trips, almost all my experiences related to industrial forestry, continuation of university training which concentrated on sustained yield management, dedication to continuous development of crops to satisfy the relentless apatite of sawmills and paper machines. Retirement opened the door to a world of social and environmental forestry.

A first assignment was in Costa Rica, a private land project of resource management for a range of products beyond dairy and timber. The second was in the Philippines where the forestry role was watershed protection to protect the capital city's potable water. Erosion control was also a concern for the farm community while reduced siltation would protect the inshore fisheries industry. A second Costa Rican experience was an environmental impact assessment, a forestry role in development of a small hydro-electric facility. An assignment in north-east China related to forestry / environmental objectives to control the encroachment of the Gobi Desert which was curtailing food production. Establishment of shelter belts was a major policy initiative to reduce sand storms restricting industrial production in cities far removed from the desert.

Dean Sisam in his final lecture to the graduation forestry class in 1953 insisted that university was only a starting point in our education. " Go out into the world and learn". For me retirement has been a post graduate course (post-employment education) about the real purposes of forestry, striving to meet the diverse needs of society in a 'wholistic' sense, sustaining the economy, the environment and community.

What's next? A writing career? At least until the next door opens.