Summer Student Resource Assistant – BC Timber Sales
This summer I’ve had the pleasure of working as a Resource Assistant with BC Timber Sales based in Smithers. My role has exposed me to a breadth of studies and field work such as block layouts, silviculture planting and harvesting, riparian assessments, road assessments, and the economic valuation of wood harvests. My individual responsibilities are primarily based on assessing the health of streams before and after forestry activities, as well as checking and assessing forest roads to generate a cohesive road map.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this role as it provides me with personal tasks and responsibilities which have greatly improved my experiential learning, and I am also given ample opportunities to shadow and work with colleagues in different positions, exposing me to a variety of different jobs and forestry related fields. To me, co-op has been an invaluable learning experience since I have been fortunate enough to visit new sites and participate in different hands-on activities everyday.
Inside the Fight to Save Forestry Jobs Forestry professor Dr. Christopher Gaston commented on job losses in B.C.’s forest industry. The Tyee
Can urban forests survive the housing boom? Forestry professor emeritus Dr. Stephen Sheppard commented on the challenges developers face in protecting trees awhile building new homes. National Observer
To save monarch butterflies, these scientists want to move mountains Forestry professor Dr. Sally Aitken commented on the assisted migration of trees that could save a monarch butterfly reserve. National Geographic (subscription)
Vancouver Park Board to vote on second phase of Stanley Park tree removal Forestry professor Richard Hamelin said that the removal of decaying trees is crucial, as they create a safety hazard. CTV News
‘There’s hope’: What we can learn from species that have made a comeback in B.C. Forestry professor Dr. Peter Arcese commented on the return of several mammal and bird species to B.C. due to successful conservation efforts. Vancouver Sun, The Province, Windsor Star, Prince George Post, Ottawa Citizen
Learn more about UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship Graduate Programs and how to apply. Hear from our program coordinators and get a chance to ask questions about the UBC Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship.
The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is a global initiative aimed at educating young leaders from disadvantaged backgrounds in Sub-Saharan Africa to drive social and economic transformation. With Africa’s youth population growing, the program addresses challenges in access to quality secondary and tertiary education by providing comprehensive support.
UBC partners with the program to offer quality education, empowering scholars to impact their communities. Rob Kozak, Dean of UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship, highlights the alignment of the program with UBC’s commitment to sustainability, giving scholars opportunities to advance in forestry and natural resource management for global benefit.
Date: September 30, 2024 | 11:45 AM – 3:00 PM Location: Various locations around UBC Campus
Join us for an Intergenerational March in recognition of Orange Shirt Day (OSD), hosted by the Faculties of Applied Science, Land and Food Systems, and Forestry. This event reflects the Faculties’ commitment to the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan. We invite all members of the UBC community, families, and allies to participate. The March is designed to be intergenerational, offering both educational and supportive experiences for the Indigenous community on campus and beyond. Engaging activities will help younger participants connect with the land’s original inhabitants, encouraging continued conversations at home about this challenging chapter in Canadian history.
All are welcome and registration is not required. The event starts at 11:45 am at 1956 Main Mall.
In recognition of National Forest Week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Hélène Marcoux, Manager of the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, to gain insight into the complexities of managing this invaluable UBC resource. Hélène’s expertise in forest management, combined with her passion for advancing research and education, has been pivotal in shaping the forest’s future. In this conversation, Hélène reflects on her experiences, the challenges of balancing ecological integrity with research needs, and the forest’s vital role in education and community engagement.
Can you introduce yourself and describe your role within the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest?
My name is Hélène Marcoux – I’m a registered professional forester and UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship MSc grad ’13 – I’m a forest ecologist, silviculturist and a nerd when it comes to plants and soils. My primary role includes overseeing the entire 5100-ha Malcolm Knapp Research Forest (MKRF) operations – including the relationships, the finances, the land and our academic mission. More specifically, I provide oversight to four different businesses operating at the MKRF: log sales, a sawmill producing custom-finished timber products, rental of the Loon Lake Lodge and Retreat Centre, and education and outdoor programs provided by the Wild and Immersive.
What are the main challenges you face in managing the forest?
The challenge is making sure that everything we do in this research forest is sustainable now and for generations to come – and by sustainable, I’m speaking to all environmental, economic, social and operational considerations. But sometimes the challenge is finding ways to accommodate a new 30-ha experimental research project – or more mundane day-to-day things, like clearing snow up to Loon Lake at 4 am. On other days, it’s scratching my head to come up with low-cost solutions to another complex problem. Whatever it is, it’s always interesting and diverse!
How do you balance the conservation goals with the operational needs of the forest?
Managing the research forests involves more than just fulfilling UBC’s mandate—it’s about genuine care and stewardship of land. Our team feels a deep sense of duty and loyalty to this forest. To me, humans are part of the land, and that stewardship is about implementing management activities that support ecosystem resilience. This forest is the first place in the Lower Mainland where logging trucks leave a forest and travel through a growing community of residents. Logging and log sales are an integral part of our revenue streams but are also, in many cases, in support of research or educational activities – and vital to our sawmilling operation.
Could you share a recent research project at Malcolm Knapp Research Forest that excites you?
Ohhh, it’s hard to answer this! I love the work that Dr. David Montwé is doing, looking at coastal Douglas-fir genotypes that exhibit greater drought tolerance in a changing climate – and the recent publication by Dr. Deb Wertman and colleagues who were the first ones to describe filamentous fungi (Neonectria bordenii) found at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest – which appears to be a mutualistic buddy of alder bark beetle (Alniphagus aspericollis). I love exciting discoveries!
How can the public get more involved in supporting sustainable forestry and conservation efforts?
The most important work taking place in our province is reconciliation with First Nations – and the shift towards forest business partnerships and redistribution of forest tenures. All Canadians and British Columbians should prioritize their own cultural education on this front – as this is the basis of a more sustainable forestry sector. On another front, I think foresters need to do a better job of providing opportunities for the public to learn. The public has concerns – and they are legitimate. However, there’s a lot of science and research that underpins current policies and practices – and so little of this is communicated or shared with the public – especially to folks living in large cities.
So to the public, I’d say find opportunities to learn about forestry, open your minds and consider how wood is part of your life – and most importantly, get out in the forest! There are a lot of polarized debates in the media that do not reflect the breadth of tradeoffs and values that are being considered in forest management. The reality with forests is that trees grow slowly and massive landscape-level changes can occur with a single spark or an insect the size of a grain of rice. It’s complex!
Can you tell us about some of the field schools and youth programs offered at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, and how they inspire the next generation of foresters?
Teaching is one of the best parts of our jobs – we offer opportunities for all ages to learn between UBC Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship field schools for our undergraduate students and professional masters programs, Wild & Immersive public programs – and internship programs for high school and university students. A big part of what we do as the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest is supporting Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship field schools. We currently host nine field schools each year – along with many other field trips. Students stay overnight at the forest at Loon Lake Lodge for 3-9 days and immerse themselves in learning in the forest. Since 2019, Wild and Immersive has hosted over 3500 participants per year – forest school programs primarily targeting 5-12-year-old kids and preschool and teen leadership opportunities. For the adults from the community – come join our public tours and opportunities to learn and have fun in the forest.
How can people get more involved in supporting sustainable forestry and conservation efforts during National Forests Week and year-round?
Look for local events! But don’t limit yourself to National Forest Week – there are 365 days per year to get out in the woods!
Join us for the first showcase of Indigenous short films, food and conversation. Stay tuned for more events to be announced soon.
Folil Trafün (‘Joining roots’ in Mapuzugun) is part of several showcases of Indigenous and Afro-diaspora films made in Latin America and Canada, followed by dialogues to deepen understanding of the films and their relationship with local realities.
In celebration of National Forest Week, we had the opportunity to sit down with Stephanie Ewen (RPF), Manager of the Alex Fraser Research Forest, to explore the unique challenges and rewards of managing one of UBC Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship key research forests. With a deep commitment to sustainable forest management and a passion for fostering educational opportunities, Stephanie shares her insights on balancing conservation, education, and operational forestry within this dynamic landscape.
Can you introduce yourself and describe your role at Alex Fraser Research Forest?
Stephanie Ewen, Manager, Alex Fraser Research Forest. I would say that my primary role is being professionally responsible for managing UBC’s area-base crown tenure for timber management that is the Alex Fraser Research Forest. We manage the tenure primarily to protect research and provide demonstration and education opportunities, while using timber revenue to cover our staff and infrastructure costs. No two days are the same, but there are seasonal routines such as spring planting, summer forest development and road building, and winter harvesting that set the cadence of my role. Interspersed with those activities, I get the pleasure of working with researchers to help facilitate their projects, and provide teaching support to UBC Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship various field-courses.
What are the main challenges you face in managing the Alex Fraser Research Forest?
I was recruited as the manager of the Alex Fraser Research Forest following the 2017 fires that affected over 10% of the Research Forest landbase. I had worked here prior to the fires as a Planning Forester, so was familiar with the systems in place and the overall objectives of the Research Forest, but was also challenged with post-fire recovery from every aspect.
Initially, that was very straightforward work centered on salvaging as much timber value as possible from the burned areas, and rehabilitating the over 50 km of fire guards that were build to fight the fires and ensure they weren’t going to be a source of future losses. We were so fortunate that a lot of the time we worked on salvage coincided with COVID, so log markets were good, and we had fewer research and education projects with fewer people traveling to the area.
It allowed us to be singularly focused to achieve the work. As we salvaged, we also took on reforestation of the burned areas, and as of 2023, finally declared all of the burned and salvaged areas, including some fire guards as being successfully regenerated. In the wake of all of that salvage, we are left with a much more extensive road network, and much greater area in young stands that will need investments to be properly stewarded into the future while we simultaneously have less mature timber available to help fund those investments. My current challenge for the Alex Fraser Research Forest is to develop new revenue streams to support the work we do, and to find ways to make partial harvesting methods more profitable as we wait for some landscape recovery.
How do you balance the conservation goals with the operational needs of the forest?
I don’t see those two ideas as being in opposition to each other, and therefore have never felt it was a balancing act. We need to harvest and sell timber to support our staff, infrastructure, and landbase investments. However, we also need to reduce stand densities in many areas to improve stand productivity, resilience and diversity. The more time I work in the woods, the more I believe that timber harvesting is the best tool we have available to accelerate and help support our non-timber landbase objectives, such as recruiting big trees.
We are so used to thinking of timber harvesting in BC as massive progressive clearcuts like what we saw in the 1980s, or the vast areas of salvage from Mountain Pine Beetle that will be a legacy in the BC Interior for many more decades to come. That isn’t what all timber harvesting is, and I love designing and implementing silvicultural systems that help to improve or maintain other landbase values. I’ve inherited a harvest prioritization approach for the research forest where we prioritize harvesting 1) expanding losses, 2) dead timber, 3) maintenance of research and demonstration sites, 4) timber at risk or of declining vigour, and finally 5) healthy timber. I have yet to see us dip into healthy timber to achieve a purely operational objective, and are frequently overwhelmed with priorities 1 and 2.
Could you share a recent research project happening within your forest that excites you?
Currently, I have my own pet project on commercial thinning that I am really excited about. So, it’s not really formal research yet, although I keep trying to recruit researchers to join me in this pet project. We’ve done a lot of commercial thinning in mature stands at the research forest as preparatory cuts for other partial cutting silviculture systems, but I have started exploring commercial thinning in some of our mixed-species mid-rotation stands that were established in the mid-1980s.
There is a lot of knowledge to be gained from research done in the past on commercial thinning of single-species stands, however, we have moved towards a lot of mixed-species planting in BC, and there is not a lot of information about how to manage those stands in the future. Commercial thinning in single-species stands would traditionally result in harvesting of the smallest trees in a stand, but in some of these mixed stands, that would mean preferentially removing one species over another, reducing the species diversity and negating the intention of the person that had planted a mixture to start with. So, I’m excited to start looking at this more closely, and understand better how we can interact with these stands.
How do forests like the Alex Fraser Research Forest play a critical role in addressing climate change and protecting biodiversity?
I don’t believe that in our small little area, we are going to make meaningful change for either global climate change or biodiversity loss through our management practices. However, at a conference I attended this spring, Dr. Kira Hoffman spoke about “boundary spanners” being catalysts for meaningful change. Working at the research forest, particularly on a crown tenure, I do see that as the role we fill. In order to conduct our business, we work with people in academia, government and industry and are constantly sharing ideas or bringing theory into practice.
When the Alex Fraser Research Forest was first envisioned, it was the local community looking for ways to try new things and learn how to better manage the forests of the region. They were looking for the “boundary spanners” that Kira talked about. After working in many areas of the province, I do think we have been successfully fulfilling that vision in the Cariboo Region, and see forest practices first tried and tested at the research forest making their way into use for other tenure holders in the region.
In your view, how can the public get more involved in supporting sustainable forestry and conservation efforts?
Choose to learn and deepen your understanding of forestry and conservation. Today, everything is so polarized and topics are reduced to a headline instead of a full debate, and those opinions are so emotionally driven. I don’t think any decision I’ve had to make in managing a forest can be reduced to a headline as there are always so many values to consider.
On the conservation side for example, so often I see that people want to preserve ecosystems so that they never change, often by excluding people, but that is unrealistic and not reflective of how the forests of BC have ever been. It’s sometimes just hard to understand the disturbances and changes that have occurred over several human lifetimes that are necessary to achieve the conditions we see today. We’ve done considerable damage in some parts of BC by trying to exclude people and disturbances such as fire from our forests.
Can you tell us about some of the field schools and youth programs offered at the research forest, and how they inspire the next generation of foresters?
Every year for a week before the Labour Day weekend, we load up buses at UBC and bring a group of undergraduate forestry students to the Alex Fraser Research Forest for field school. These students are about to start their third year of study and stay in a remote camp away from the influence of WiFi and cell phones to be fully immersed in learning about the ecology of the forests here in the interior of BC.
We get to whet their appetite for learning about alternative silvicultural systems, and show them how we can use harvesting to support our management objectives. In many cases, this is the most north those students have ever been and the first time being in a forestry-dependant community. It’s great to show them just how vast and diverse BC’s forests are, the importance they hold in the region, and introduce them to people from throughout the sector who are working together to improve forest practices.
We also host a forest education business, Wild & Immersive, that is currently providing learning opportunities in the forest for youth aged 3-12. We have Wild and Immersive kids on our site 12 months of the year, who are gaining observational skills, learning to be comfortable in natural environments, and beginning to understand the complexities of our natural environment. Those foundational developmental skills are critical to becoming a thoughtful, creative Forester of the future.
In your view, how can the public get more involved in supporting sustainable forestry and conservation efforts during National Forests Week and year-round?
Stop planting trees! But seriously, Dr. Paul Hessburg has been talking for years now about our current “epidemic of trees,” so maybe spend some time this week better understanding why before deciding whether or not to plant that tree. Another great thing to do would be to get to know the trees around you better – start documenting how they are doing and why – foster those observational skills and the idea that change takes a long time for trees and forests.
About Dana-Lyn Mackenzie’s Commitment to EDI & Indigeneity
Dana-Lyn Mackenzie (she/her) is a recognized leader in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI), and Indigeneity. She has made significant contributions through education, advocacy, policy guidance, and the implementation of the Indigenous Strategic Plan within UBC.
Dana-Lyn developed the Weaving Relations course, exploring Indigenous histories and settler colonialism in Canada, which has enrolled nearly 2,000 faculty and staff. The course’s success reflects her commitment to making discussions on Indigenous issues accessible and engaging.
Her EDI leadership extends beyond the classroom, notably in organizing the Intergenerational March for Orange Shirt Day and mentoring new Indigenous staff. Dana-Lyn embodies inclusion and anti-racism in her work at UBC.
About the UBC President’s Staff Awards
The UBC President’s Staff Awards at the Vancouver campus honor the personal achievements and contributions of staff to both UBC and the university’s broader vision and goals. Each year, a call for nominations is issued at the beginning of the year.
Intermediate and senior Co-op students will showcase their recent work terms through presentations, while junior students will display their projects through posters, offering valuable insight and networking opportunities.
UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship wishes to congratulate three faculty members on receiving the 2024 Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada (CIF-IFC) Awards in the following categories:
Suzanne Simard – Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award
Chris Gaston – Canadian Forestry Achievement Award
Dr. Suzanne Simard is being honored for her groundbreaking research on forest ecosystems, particularly mycorrhizal networks. She is known for developing the Mother Tree Project and establishing the Mother Tree Network. Her work has reshaped forest management and conservation, and she engages the public through a best-selling memoir and popular TED Talks. Dr. Simard also advocates for Indigenous communities, gender equity, and mentors future foresters.
About the CIF-IFC Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award
Dr. Chris Gaston’s research focuses on markets and economics, specifically in developing new products and markets for Canadian wood products in North America and internationally. This includes primary and secondary wood products, with applications in construction, renovation, and industry, as well as engagement with Indigenous communities, small-medium enterprises, and emerging engineered wood products.
About the CIF-IFC Canadian Forestry Achievement Award
Dr. Intu Boedhihartono has a multidisciplinary background in Anthropology, Fine Arts, Cinematography, and Natural Sciences, with a Doctorate in Ethnology & Visual Anthropology from the University of Paris 7. Her research focuses on indigenous peoples and local communities, emphasizing traditional knowledge and sustainable natural resource management. Intu uses visual and participatory methods to engage diverse stakeholders, aiming to balance conservation with cultural and economic development.
About the CIF-IFC Canadian International Forestry Achievement Award
The International Forestry Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made unique and outstanding contributions or achievements in international forestry and encourages excellence and cooperation in international forestry.
