UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship congratulates Nava Sachs for receiving the Killam Doctoral Scholarship for the 2026-2027 academic year.
About Nava Sachs
Nava Sachs is a PhD student in the UBC Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship and a researcher in the Indigenous Ecology Lab whose work focuses on ethnobotany, ecological restoration, decolonizing research methodologies, and Indigenous food systems revitalization. Her research explores how Indigenous knowledge and cultural resurgence can strengthen long-term ecological restoration and land stewardship practices.
About the Killam Doctoral Scholarships
The Killam Doctoral Scholarships are funded annually through the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Fund for Advanced Studies and represent UBC’s most prestigious awards for doctoral students. They are awarded to the highest-ranked candidates in the annual Tri-Agency Canada Graduate Research Scholarships – Doctoral (CGRS-D) and UBC Affiliated Fellowship competitions.
When people think about wildfires, they usually think about flames, smoke and evacuations. However, for many communities, some of the most important damage begins after the fire has passed.
Most wildfires leave behind a barren, blackened landscape, and within this changed environment, important impacts can leave their mark. Trees and other vegetation that once slowed rainfall and held soil in place are gone. Ash and burned debris cover the ground. Soil can become more vulnerable to erosion.
Then, the rain comes. When that happens, streams, rivers and water reservoirs receive a sudden pulse of ash, sediment and fire-suppressant chemicals washed off the land. For communities that depend on those waters for drinking water, wildfires can quickly become a long-term water-quality problem.
This risk is often overlooked when governments and communities think about wildfires. Our recent review of 23 studies across 28 watersheds brings together existing knowledge on how wildfire-related contaminants affect water sources.
One of the clearest lessons is that the impacts of wildfire do not stop at the edge of the burn scar. They can travel downstream, into the waters that people rely on every day.
More contaminants in water
One of the first signs of trouble after a wildfire is often turbidity — the cloudiness caused by suspended particles in the water.
High turbidity can make drinking water much more difficult to treat. Fine particles can interfere with processes, clog filters and make disinfection less effective. After a fire, the problem is often worsened by storms that flush large amounts of ash, soil and organic material into waterways over a short period of time.
Wildfires can also increase levels of contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), some of which are carcinogenic or suspected carcinogens. Many PAHs can attach to ash, soot and fine particles, allowing them to move through a watershed when water runs off. Some lower-molecular-weight PAHs may also occur in dissolved form, creating additional challenges for monitoring and water treatment.
Wildfires also make landscapes more vulnerable to erosion, which can release sediments, metals, dissolved organic matter and other contaminants into lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Not every wildfire affects water in the same way. The size of the impact depends on many factors: how severely the area burned, how steep the terrain is, what kinds of soil and vegetation are present, how close the burned area is to streams and reservoirs, and how soon heavy rain falls after the fire. In many cases, the fire creates the conditions for water contamination, but the first major storm that follows delivers the blow.
There are still those other persistent factors that can lead to contamination, even years after the wildfire. This is one reason wildfire risk is becoming harder to manage in a warming world.
That broader perspective matters for water policy. If governments treat wildfire only as an emergency response problem, they will miss what happens before and long after the flames. They will also miss opportunities to reduce long-term contamination of drinking water.
What can be done?
The first step is to recognize water protection as part of wildfire preparedness. Utilities and governments should know which watersheds are most vulnerable to severe fire and post-fire runoff. Fire-risk planning, watershed management and drinking-water planning are often handled separately. That needs to change.
The second step is better monitoring. After a major fire, communities need timely information about what is entering their water sources. Without timely monitoring, utilities are left reacting after water quality has already deteriorated.
The third step is stronger support for drinking water treatment systems, especially in smaller and rural communities. Large cities may have more backup options, flexible treatment systems and capacity. Smaller communities often do not. Yet they may face some of the greatest risks when fire affects the watersheds they depend on.
Wildfire policy should be guided by fairness as well as science. Not all communities are equally able to absorb a shock to their water supply. Communities with fewer financial resources, older infrastructure or limited treatment capacity may face longer disruptions and higher risks.
As Canada heads into another wildfire season, we should widen our understanding of what wildfires leave behind. The flames may last days or weeks, but the effects on water can last far longer. If we want communities to be truly resilient, we need to protect not only the air people breathe, but also the water they depend on.
Hanna Sobkowich almost didn’t come to UBC. Now she’s leaving it as a school record holder, a researcher, and a student who says she’d do it all over again.
When Hanna Sobkowich graduated from high school in White Rock, going to UBC was the last thing on her mind.
“I didn’t want to go local,” she says. “I was determined not to.”
Then a phone call changed everything. A high school friend’s grandfather — a former UBC head coach — put her name forward to the current track and field program. The coach reached out, offered her a walk-on spot, and Sobkowich, who had only started taking sprinting seriously in Grade 12, made a snap decision.
“I was like, okay, cool. I guess I’m going to go to UBC.”
Now in her fifth year, Sobkowich is finishing an honours thesis in the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship, working as a lab technician in a research lab, and preparing to graduate as the school record holder in the 100, 200, and 400 metres — a sweep she completed in a single conference meet last spring.
“This is more than I could have ever asked for,” she says.
An unlikely path to forestry
Sobkowich arrived at UBC knowing she liked science, but not what kind. A high school counsellor pointed her toward Forest Sciences, and she applied almost on a whim.
“I was like, okay, cool. Applied. Got in early. And that was kind of that.”
Her first year was a blur of large chemistry and math lectures, far from the tight-knit forestry community she’d eventually call home. A soil science course offered a glimpse — “I was like, okay, this is interesting” — but the real turning point came in second year, when she entered the smaller world of the Faculty.
“You can just tell that the professors love their students and love what they do. I’ve been here for five years and I’ve only ever had great professor experiences. I feel like that’s a win.”
The making of a record-breaker
Track was never the plan. Sobkowich played soccer and softball in high school and only started sprinting competitively in Grade 12. She joined the team with cautious optimism and spent her first year not competing at all. A trip to California for warm-weather meets shifted something.
“I was like, oh, I want to do this. I want to be good at this.”
By second year she was running personal bests at nearly every race. Her fourth year brought a full-circle moment: at conference, in two days, she broke the school record in the 400, then the 200, then took second in the 100 while setting another program record.
The journey wasn’t without darkness. In third year, after the sudden loss of a teammate to suicide, her performances fell apart. She made nationals but placed seventeenth in events she’d finished fourth in the year before.
“I blamed myself. Like, I’m just not meant to do this.”
She came back her fourth year still carrying that weight — until anchoring the four-by-one relay at conference, when everything clicked.
“We broke the conference record, broke the school record. Something good already happened in my senior year, and it took the pressure off.”
Sobkowich is now out of eligibility but still training, competing unattached while chasing the standard to represent BC at the Canadian national championships. She was part of Team BC at the Canada Summer Games last summer, winning gold in the four-by-one. Olympic ambitions remain, though she’s clear-eyed about the road ahead.
“I would love to eventually make it. But now I have to pay out of pocket for everything. And that’s not sustainable forever.”
From stream samples to wood bison
In parallel with her athletic career, Sobkowich has been building a research portfolio that would be impressive for any student, let alone one training five days a week.
It started inthird year with a position in Dr. John Richardson’s lab, sorting stream invertebrates and doing field work at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. A directed study with Dr. Anil Shrestha on species distribution modelling for the collared pika followed — until a competing team published the same idea, forcing a pivot to wood bison and coding the model from scratch in R.
“My supervisor really encouraged me to do it. It’s a really good skill to have.”
Her results were surprising: the model suggested the wood bison population would shift south under climate change, counter to most published findings. She’s spending this summer refining the model and hopes to publish. She also holds a concurrent position in Dr. Richard Hamelin’s lab, collecting click beetle samples at the UBC Farm and supporting the team’s DNA extraction work.
What comes next
Sobkowich plans to pursue a master’s degree in 2027, with a year off to travel first. She wants to stay at UBC FES — “there’s no better forestry program” — and is reaching out to researchers working at the intersection of climate change, conservation, and animal ecology. The long game is a professorship.
“Teaching people what you love just seems really cool. So many profs gave me opportunities — the lab work, this interview, asking me to be the grad student speaker. It would be really cool to give back the same way, because it’s what makes your university experience, and my faculty made mine.”
Hanna Sobkowich graduates from UBC’s Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship with a Bachelor of Science in Forest Sciences (Honours) in May 2026.
The process of fueling combined heat and power (CHP) generation starts with sourcing, chipping and drying forest residues later burned in the CHP co-generation system to produce energy. Heat from this process is used to dry forest residues and heat a neighbouring greenhouse. Displaced cool air from the greenhouse is directed back to cool the co-generation system. Energy produced by the co-generation system powers the greenhouse via the power grid, with excess potentially sold to power companies.
Combining renewable energy production with food-growing greenhouses
A project ramping up at the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship’s (FES’s) Alex Fraser Research Forest (AFRF) in Williams Lake is building expertise in a novel and more sustainable way to generate power and grow local food. Launched in 2025, the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Greenhouse Project is a proof-of-concept that is redirecting forest residues from forest and fuel treatment operations to heat a greenhouse. With generous support from a private grant-making foundation and a recent gift of technology from Energy Plug Technologies Corp, the combined CHP-greenhouse enables the year-round production of food, including Indigenous foods, and medicinal plants.
The project is led by Dominik Roeser, FES Prof. and Assoc. Dean of Research Forests and Community Outreach, and has the potential to expand the mix of local power-generation options. CHP could particularly benefit rural, remote and Indigenous communities often cutoff from major power grids and overly reliant on diesel fuel. These same communities are also more vulnerable to high food prices and food unavailability.
“This is a collaborative project that is developing, testing and implementing training on how to operate CHP-powered greenhouse systems, particularly for rural, remote and Indigenous communities.” — Dominik Röeser
CHP is a renewable energy technology that converts biomass — specifically forest residues — into both electricity and heat. The approach dramatically reduces carbon dioxide, sulphur and mercury emissions compared with non-renewable energy sources, such as diesel. It also makes use of salvage logging, along with forest fuels affected by wildfire or traditional or prescribed burns.
The technology could help to stimulate local economies affected by mill closures and challenges in the forest sector. In particular, it has the potential to generate jobs and economic development in CHP power generation connected to food production in rural communities, which account for approximately 30% of Canada’s total gross domestic product.1
“The greenhouse project brings together food security, Indigenous plant cultivation and energy innovation into one living lab,” shares Mustafa Onder Ersin, the project manager for the CHP Academy Greenhouse Project at AFRF. “We’re not only helping communities heat their buildings and grow their own food, we’re restoring agency and stewardship over local resources.”
“Indigenous communities, in particular, are encouraged to shape how these technologies are applied, ensuring cultural relevance and long-term adoption.” — Mustafa Onder Ersin
In 2021, FES, in partnership with FPInnovations, Natural Resources Canada and the Fraser Basin Council, launched the CHP Academy at AFRF to offer FES training and demonstration on CHP power generation. The CHP Academy is open to community members who want to learn about and gain technical skills in the operation, maintenance and scaling of CHP systems.
CHP Academy has already trained dozens of participants and is preparing to expand its field-based and online curriculum to include greenhouse operations, plant care and community engagement.
The CHP Academy Greenhouse Project is affiliated with the CHP Academy Community Bioenergy Systems training program, with plans in place to expand the project to at least two First Nations communities and establish a replicable and scalable model for other communities to develop their own CHP facilities and CHP-powered greenhouses.
“The biomass CHP greenhouse installations that we are building and testing, along with the CHP Academy Community Bioenergy Systems training program, are establishing the workforce and expertise needed to expand CHP and food-generation systems like these throughout Canada,” says Dominik.
The CHP Academy Greenhouse Project is seeking additional long-term funding. To learn more, contact Dominik Roeser: dominik.roeser@ubc.ca.
The Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship is seeking undergraduate student leaders to help welcome new students as part of Imagine Day 2026!
This a fun and rewarding volunteer position that plays a crucial role in the delivery of UBC Orientations for students joining the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship in September 2026.
Please see the position description for more details, including important dates:
Dr. Amy Wotherspoon has a PhD in Forest Ecology and studies how climate, geological deposits, and silvicultural treatments influence forest dynamics. Her current research examines future climate impacts across Canada’s managed forests to support adaptive silviculture. Amy is also passionate about teaching, holds a micro-certificate in Higher Education Pedagogy, is a CITRL Practitioner, and teaches with the UBC-Asia Transfer Program in China.
When: Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Where: Forest Science Center (FSC) Atrium
Join the UBC FES JEDI team at their awareness table in the Forest Sciences Centre Atrium. Stop by to learn more about ending gender-based violence, pick up a Moose Hide pin, and stand in solidarity for respect, safety, and reconciliation. Everyone is welcome – wear your pin proudly and help spark meaningful conversations in our community.
About the Moose Hide Campaign
The Moose Hide Campaign began as a BC-born Indigenous-led grassroots movement to engage men and boys in ending violence towards women and children. It has since grown into a nationwide movement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians from local communities, First Nations, governments, schools, colleges/universities, police forces and many other organizations – all committed to taking action to end this violence.
On October 8, 2025, the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship (FES) hosted the first in a series of Backman Dialogues. The “Forestry in Flux: Reimagining BC’s Forests” public lecture series at the Hollywood Theatre in Vancouver featured a panel discussion on growing a sustainable and viable forest sector in the face of shifting public values, climate change and other pressures. Expert panelists were: Molly Hudson, Vice President of Forestry and Sustainability at Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation; Adam Olsen(SȾHENEP), Negotiator for the Tsartlip First Nation; Dominik Roeser, FES Assoc. Dean of Research Forests and Community Outreach; and Lisa Matthaus, Provincial Lead for Organizing for Change. The series is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Backman Family.
“The shaky ground that British Columbia’s forest sector finds itself on right now is an opportunity to reimagine its future,” says Charles Backman (BSF’76, MBA’86). The career forester spent 50 years working in the field and academia, both of which informed his optimism for forestry to rise above its present challenges.
A third-generation forestry professional, Charles received a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from UBC, which propelled him into a role as an area forester with MacMillan Bloedel, Franklin River Division, where his father, Arvid Backman (BASc(Forest Engineering)’43, MF’93), had worked as a Manager. A few kilometres away, near Port Renfrew, Charles’s paternal grandfather, Carl Backman, formerly headed a tree falling crew at the Bear Creek camp.
Keen to expand his horizons, Charles springboarded to an Asst. Municipal Forester position with the Municipality of North Cowichan, growing its forest operations team from 10 to over 150 personnel. After an MBA from UBC and a stint working with a variety of companies raising capital on a regional stock exchange, Charles followed a dream through the University of Washington in Seattle as a Research Scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in the Forestry Project division. This took him to the former Soviet Union, China and parts of Europe to work in various areas of forest operations and sustainable development. Charles concluded his career as Chair and Instructor in the Business and Office Administration program, and as a current Instructor Emeritus, at Northwestern Polytechnic, formerly Grande Prairie Regional College.
“The question now is: how, in a changing world with new sets of values, can we best utilize our valuable natural resources? This process starts with an understanding of the science and having our sights set on long-term sustainability and profitability.” — Charles Backman
One of Charles’s present focuses is a passion project started by his late parents, Arvid and Elizabeth: giving back to the community. Three distinct areas are presently being supported through the Backman Family Conflict Resolution Fund. The biennial Backman Dialogues are a public lecture series designed to spark discourse on pressing, and often contentious, issues affecting BC’s forest sector.
The Backman Family Conflict Resolution in Forestry Research Fund supports UBC Forestry graduate students and is currently enabling interdisciplinary research supervised by Asst. Prof. Hamish van der Ven and Assoc. Profs. Sarah Benson-Amram and Harry Nelson. For example, funding is supporting the research of Muh (Syu) Syukron, a 4th-year Forestry PhD student working in the Business, Sustainability and Technology Lab and co-supervised by Hamish and UBC Forestry Prof. and Dean Rob Kozak (BSc’88, PhD’96). Syu’s doctoral research is examining the role of social media in shaping discourse about palm oil sustainability in Indonesia.
Lastly, the Backman Family Travel Award in Forestry makes it possible for UBC Forestry undergraduate students with financial need to attend experiential learning opportunities, such as Field Schools and semesters in places like Haida Gwaii, South Africa and South America.
“By supporting students and public dialogue, I hope to enable the views and values that will be important to the next generation to be heard,” says Charles.
“History has taught us that times of instability will end, and that key decision-makers who open up discussions often shape the tactics and tools used by industry, labour, government and other stakeholders,” Charles adds. “The forest sector needs to continue to be at the table to steer these discussions.”
A new study led by UBC FES researchers has found that lands managed by Indigenous Peoples consistently protect forests, biodiversity and carbon stores at levels equal to or greater than government-designated protected areas—yet most of these lands remain inadequately recognized or resourced.
The paper, published recently in People and Nature, is the largest study of its kind to date. It analyzed 111 peer-reviewed papers examining forest cover, biodiversity, carbon storage, wildfire activity and other conservation outcomes across the Amazon, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Canada and other regions. Three-quarters of those studies found a positive relationship between Indigenous lands and conservation.
“Indigenous Peoples are among the world’s most effective land stewards, yet many are still fighting for basic recognition of their rights to lands they have protected for generations. The science is clear—we need to catch up,” said Dr. William Nikolakis, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Forest Resources Management at UBC FES.
Evidence across continents and ecosystems
In the Brazilian Amazon, one study found that between 2005 and 2012, native vegetation loss was 17 times lower on Indigenous lands than on similar unprotected areas. Indigenous lands also consistently had greater biodiversity: in Australia alone, 60 per cent of the country’s 1,574 threatened species were found on Indigenous lands. Carbon storage on Indigenous lands was also strong, with research from the Amazon and Panama finding that these lands preserved carbon stocks at levels equal to or greater than protected areas.
Despite this evidence, serious gaps persist. The authors note that 60 per cent of Indigenous lands worldwide face threats from industrial development and climate change. Many remain legally unrecognized by governments, leaving them vulnerable to encroachment by logging, agriculture and extractive industries. Where legal protections were weak or absent, conservation outcomes declined.
Gap in Indigenous voices
The study also highlights a major gap in the research itself: only seven per cent of the 111 papers included Indigenous authors.
“This is a significant disconnect,” said Garry Merkel, co-author and director of UBC’s Centre of Indigenous Land Stewardship and a member of Tahltan Nation. “Scientists often find it difficult to accept Indigenous science as legitimate, resulting in academic research that does not fully reflect Indigenous knowledge systems or perspectives. This work will help future research to be more inclusive and respectful in its acknowledgement of Indigenous communities.”
The review notes that much Indigenous knowledge exists outside academic journals, in community-led research and oral traditions that are often excluded from formal scientific analysis.
Clear path forward
The review comes as countries work toward protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030. Three policy priorities emerged consistently from the literature: securing formal land rights for Indigenous Peoples, funding and resourcing Indigenous stewardship and supporting Indigenous-led governance. Researchers said these approaches work best together—land rights without resources, or resources without governance authority are insufficient on their own.
“If we are serious about conservation in Canada, we need to support Indigenous governance,” said Dr. Nikolakis. “That means secure land tenure, stable funding for stewardship, and enabling Indigenous Peoples to make decisions about their lands without external pressure.”
“Indigenous stewardship is not just another tool in the toolbox—it’s foundational,” said Merkel. “When Indigenous Peoples have the authority and support to care for their lands, the benefits extend to ecosystems, climate and community wellbeing and provide practical models that can guide others’ stewardship approaches globally.”
