Open to all UBC Forestry graduate and 4th year students doing a thesis or a major paper. Secure a spot by emailing an expression of interest by JANUARY 15, 2024
Competition Date
Thursday, March 21, 2024 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM FSC Atrium, Faculty of Forestry, UBC In Honor of International Day of the Forest
More Information
We cordially invite you to participate in the Forestry Research Showcase, a student poster competition designed exclusively for the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. This is a unique platform to hone your communication skills, articulate your research compellingly, and discover the groundbreaking work of your peers.
The session aims to foster a dynamic exchange of ideas among students, invited practitioners, Indigenous leaders, policy makers, government researchers and community advocates offering unparalleled networking opportunities. Abstracts will be complied and published in a citable document for you CV.
Prizes
Three all-expenses-paid trip to the BC Community Forestry Conference in June 2024 and more!
The Challenge
Craft an innovative and captivating poster or experience that effectively communicates your research to a diverse audience.
How to Participate
To secure a spot in the competition, please submit an expression of interest by January 15, 2024. This should include a title, your supervisor’s name, a description of your topic (300 words or less) and a description of what you need (space for a poster, table for interactive materials, etc) to Deborah.delong@ubc.ca
Salmon researchers from British Columbia are embarking on a three-year study to understand and help mitigate the cumulative threats affecting the vulnerable species in the province’s watersheds.
Tara Martin
The Watershed Futures Initiative, which includes researchers from University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and University of Montana, has received $1.25 million from the federal and provincial governments – through the joint British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund – to tackle the combined impacts of logging, mining, urban development, agriculture, climate change and other factors on salmon.
“The effective stewardship of salmon ecosystems entails integrating the best science on cumulative effects with priority management actions and good governance to ensure actions are implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner,” says project lead Tara Martin, a professor of forest and conservation sciences at UBC Forestry.
While the devastating effect of these risks are studied in isolation, there is an urgent need to improve both the science and management of cumulative effects in B.C. to prevent a “death by a thousand cuts,” according to project co-lead Jonathan Moore.
“Many salmon populations are struggling. We are asking a lot of our salmon ecosystems – from logging to water withdrawals to development to climate change,” says SFU biological sciences professor Moore. “It is a large and multi-pronged problem, and we are hoping that this initiative can help contribute to positive steps forward.”
The initiative will address high-priority knowledge gaps. Researchers will explore ongoing changes in salmon watersheds using remote sensing, synthesize scientific information to inform benchmarks and management targets, help identify potential paths forward, and connect groups working to improve the climate resilience of B.C.’s salmon watersheds.
In addition to research and recommending policies, building social networks and sharing promising success stories is a key objective of the initiative. This will be achieved through several events that bring together a diverse group of leaders, managers, technicians, and scientists to learn from each other.
“Salmon are of critical importance and they are suffering,” says Robert Chamberlin, chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance and a member of the expert advisory panel guiding the project. “Watershed Futures Initiative is tackling the wicked problem of cumulative effects and doing so in a good way.”
In addition to the government funding announced this week, a contribution from the Sitka Foundation is also helping support this work.
I am an applied landscape ecologist with a focus on understanding how to manage human-dominated landscapes, like agricultural and urban areas, for people and nature. I focus specifically on how landscape structure and human actions impact biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services. My work spans multiple spatial scales, from individual urban parks and agricultural fields to regional and national scales. Ultimately, I aim to provide knowledge that can be readily used by land managers, practitioners, and decision-makers to inform their decisions.
NSO Intern Position at British Columbia Conservation Foundation; Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program.
I will be completing my third work term at the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program (NSOBP), which is a project under the British Columbia Conservation Foundation. I have begun learning about raptor glove training procedures such as training cues and falconry equipment. The goal is to bring our ambassador owl to outreach events on my own to engage and educate the public about northern spotted owls. This October I was eager to assist with veterinary exams crucial to checking the health of these raptors and I was able to learn more about spotted owl anatomy and capturing techniques. As well, I have been introduced to the branding, marketing, and visual content side of the NSOBP and I am helping with social media and fundraising. After finishing this co-op term, I will have a full year of experience working in wildlife conservation at the NSOBP. I enjoy seeing the owls grow and am truly honoured to be recognized as a valuable member of such an amazing team.
Stswecem’c Xget’tem Development Corporation (SXDC) is a progressive and dynamic Indigenous-owned corporation dedicated to fostering economic growth and prosperity for the First Nation (SXFN). The position of Forest Operations Manager directs, oversees, the administration and management of the day-to-day activities of forest crews, operations plan, contracts, budgets, and expenses of the forest division of the corporation. Reports to the General Manager of the development corporation.
The position of General Manager (GM) directs, oversees and is responsible for the administration and management of the day-to-day activities of a store, Big Bar Guest Ranch, Meadow Lake Ranch, and forestry operations. The GM is responsible for the preparation of plans, budgets and cashflows and profit and loss statements for consideration of the Board.
Big Bar Ranch owned by the Stswecem’c-Xgat’tem First Nation is looking for a seasonal Wrangler/Trail Guide. If you are skilled in this field and looking for a live-in position nestled in the mountains, the heart of the Traditional Secwepemc Territory is where you’ll want to be! Here, you’ll find many outdoor activities including trail rides, hiking, fishing, mountain biking and more.
For more information and how to apply please see the links below and their website.
Did you know that more than half of the biodiversity in forests lives below ground, and that organisms residing beneath the forest floor depend on fluxes of carbon produced by living trees? In this webinar, Professor Cindy Prescott explores how surplus sugars, exuded from trees, nourish this underground world and how we can apply this knowledge to support soil life within harvested areas.
Featured Speaker
Prof. Cindy Prescott Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences UBC Faculty of Forestry
Business Co-op, Conservation & Energy Management Position at FortisBC Energy Inc.
I am currently in my fourth co-op work term in the Business Co-op, Conservation & Energy Management position at FortisBC Energy Inc. in Surrey, BC.
Some of my responsibilities include initiating the first steps of processing rebate applications for multiple programs, sorting through mail-in rebate applications, and assisting with various tasks for the Conservation & Energy Management department. I am also taking part in an onboarding experience project where I get to review the current onboarding procedure for new employees and make recommendations to improve the overall onboarding experience for future new employees joining FortisBC.
Working in the Business Co-op position is a valuable experience because I now realize the variety of approaches to dealing with environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, especially from business and management perspectives. The fact that customers can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by installing high-efficient appliances is great, and FortisBC offering rebates on those high efficiency appliances makes it even better.
I was able to work in this position at FortisBC because of my co-op status as a student in Forestry Co-op. Being part of the Forestry Co-op program has given me opportunities to develop essential job skills while working at different companies as an undergraduate student.
Jr. Forest Technician Co-op at Fortsite Consultants Ltd.
For the past couple of months, I’ve been working at the Fort St. John office of Forsite Consultants Ltd. for my fourth Co-op work term. Forsite Consultants Ltd., or Forsite for short, is a large forestry consulting company that operates within the province of British Columbia and other various provinces around Canada. The Fort St. John branch of Forsite works closely with its partner British Columbia Timber Sales (BCTS) in supplying accurate information about cutblocks and setting it up to be auctioned off.
I assist my supervisor and coworkers in day-to-day tasks relating to various Forsite projects. These consisted of plot cruising, ecological plot assessments, stream assessments, and even individual tree inventories. I also help with keeping the shop in good shape by maintaining equipment we take into the field consistently and doing vehicle checks. The joy and excitement of working at Forsite at Fort St. John really is something only Forestry Co-op provides, and I can’t wait to see what unique experiences happens during the second half of this winter work term!
Production Coordinator Co-op with Builders Door and Window Supply
At the start of my co-op term at Builders Door & Window, I was very lucky to work on a process improvement project that significantly impacted the company’s operations. In this project, I conducted time studies and wrote a process flowchart to analyze the whole manufacturing process. From this project, I found that the former labour time sheet which is used to quantify the total labour costs has a variance from reality. The management valued this result and responded to it with agility, adjusting the system and communicating the change to the quote system of the company.
Besides the projects, one of my primary routes is related to the product calculator, which was written by one of Wood Products Processing alumni named Michael. He wrote thousands of VBA codes to build up the whole system, generating BOMs and Production instruments by the product configurations, and providing the price based on the materials and labour. My work is to maintain the pricing system, including checking the code, repairing bugs, providing new features, and updating our cost to ensure all quotations are accurate. This work pushed me beyond the theoretical realms of my studies, demanding practical application and innovative problem-solving. Being a production coordinator means being at the forefront of processing and distributing orders to the production staff. That improves my production management skills. I found myself coordinating various complicated tasks to achieve seamless manufacturing processes. Although never perfect, solving every problem in the production lines, assisted by my supervisors, gave me a better understanding of the manufacturing system, which can be a real booster of my career.
Additionally, I found that almost every course with “WOOD” has been applied to this coop term. I used knowledge from WOOD 245 (Programming for Wood Products Manufacturing Applications) to write and check the VBA codes of the product calculator, I used the design skills from WOOD 485(Furniture Construction) to generate the shop drawings of products and the industrial engineering knowledge learnt from WOOD 330 (Industrial Engineering) gives me a big picture of process improvement and manufacturing systems. Therefore, this valuable co-op term wasn’t just about acquiring technical skills-it was a holistic learning experience that blurred the lines between theory and practice. I really enjoyed it!
Geoterra Integrated Resource Systems Ltd. is a British Columbia based company that provides consulting services to the natural resource sector and related industries. We are a leader in the provision of technical expertise and information within the industry, and we pride ourselves on the provision of safe, efficient, and effective services.
Geoterra IRS is seeking qualified candidates for timber cruiser positions in the interior of British Columbia. This is a field-based position.
For more information and how to apply please visit the link below.
