Natural Resource Technician with Burns Lake Community Forest Ltd. in Burns Lake, BC
For nearly the past two months, I’ve been working in the Burns Lake Community Forest (BLCM) for my second Co-op work term. Burns Lake Community Forest is one of the largest community forests, which spans over 92,000 hectares, and manages the land both through a mix of using silvicultural and harvesting techniques. The community forest works with all kinds of parties ranging from logging companies like Babine Forest Products to the many indingenous groups within the area like the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation. I handle a lot of day-to-day tasks with my coworker Matt, ranging from jobs around the office and shop, to even helping with prescribed burning with some of the best fire crews in British Columbia. Though planting season is nearly over, I’ve been having a blast working with Hybrid 17, the local planting company working with Burns Lake Community Forest this year. The intricacy and excitement of working with this community forest is something that Forestry Co-op provides in troves and I can’t wait for what the rest of this summer work term has to offer!
Resource Data Technician with Government of Saskatchewan in Prince Albert, SK
For my fourth co-op work term I have returned to the Forest Service Branch at the Government of Saskatchewan, and continued to work as a Resource Data Technician. As this was in Northern Saskatchewan, there was still plenty of snow when May rolled around! My time at the Ministry of Environment has allowed me to develop the skills I’ve learned in class. Doing compliance reviews, managing data using ArcGIS Pro, and using my forestry and resource conservation knowledge for data analysis has helped me see how our coursework can be applied in the field. The development, analysis, and maintenance of this data is used either publicly, internally, or by industry, and keeps all stakeholders informed about their land usage. Co-op is a fantastic way to gain more experience in the field, develop connections, and apply your knowledge. I would highly recommend co-op as an option to explore your career options and discover what you love doing!
Undergraduate Intern with Alex Fraser Research Forest in Williams Lake, BC
For my second work term, I have had the pleasure of working with UBC’s Alex Fraser Research Forest in Williams Lake, BC. As a summer intern, I am involved in a variety of projects around the research forest including silviculture, operations, and education. So far this summer, I’ve worked on planting quality inspections, block layout, GIS mapping, and more. This work term has allowed me to build on skills gained from my previous position while learning new things as well. In the coming months, I am looking forward to working on silviculture surveys and implementing a brushing contract. Overall, the co-op program is a great way to get hands-on experience and gain clarity towards future career paths.
South Coast Conservation Field Crow with Nature Trust British Columbia in Vancouver, BC
This co-op term I have been working with NTBC to maintain and restore their conservation properties on the South Coast. My tasks vary widely from brush cutting and posting signage, installing nesting boxes and wildlife cameras, completing bio-inventories and species surveys, as well as office work such as managing a social media account and developing my own restoration project. Participating in the UBC Forestry coop program has allowed me to apply classroom knowledge and particularly develop my plant ID skills.
Summer Forest Technician with Lil’wat Forestry Ventures in BC
For my first Co-op placement, I have had the pleasure of working as a summer forest technician with Lil’wat Forestry Ventures in Mt. Currie, BC. In this position I have been exposed to numerous different aspects of the forestry industry from post-harvest to regeneration and management, while having the added benefit of seeing how an indigenous run forestry company blends traditional forestry practices with indigenous priorities.
The first month of my placement focused mainly on tree planting, where we stocked harvested blocks with seedlings according to the spacing and species present before harvest. During the second month, we learned from experienced surveyors to perform silvicultural surveys on blocks of a variety of age classes. During these surveys, we collected data regarding tree height, age and health, brush data and block features in order to assess the sufficiency of restocking and prescribe appropriate management treatments. In the coming months, as wildfire season begins, we will be assigned a firefighting crew and participate in fire suppression and fuels management.
This placement has provided me with first-hand knowledge as to how a forestry company operates and has allowed me to apply my education in a hands-on setting. I am incredibly grateful for the experience I have gained, the beautiful places I get to visit and the amazing community I get to work with.
Wilderness Foundation Africa Representative at Wilderness Foundation Africa as an International Co-op
I am very fortunate to accept a position at Wilderness Foundation Africa as a Wild Rhino Representative in my hometown for my third Coop term! My work primarily focuses on raising awareness of the rhino poaching crisis and ultimately stopping the demand for rhino horns in Vietnam and neighbouring Asian countries. The past few months have been a great roller coaster ride with many partner meetings, school presentations and events, and outreach opportunities. Not only have I extensively improved my event planning and content development skills, but I’ve also learned how to represent my NGO in professional meetings and work settings. The Forestry Coop program has provided me with an opportunity to reconnect with the NGO that changed my life and guided me to conservation. I’m excited about the future and am determined to contribute to reducing the demand for rhino horns in Asia.
TLEF Undergraduate with UBC (Malcolm Knapp Research Forest) in Maple Ridge, BC
For my co-op term I am working as a TLEF Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. Throughout my work term so far, I have been measuring tree height, DBH, live crown height, and calculating the defoliation percent of Douglas-fir trees that have been separated into eight plots, and entering this data onto MS Excel. They are separated into plots with varying densities to find out which spacing will produce an optimal yield of timber for future silvicultural plantations. This is important as British Columbia’s timber industry provides such a strong contribution to Canada’s economy, however as we harvest more of our old growth forests, we need to find alternatives that will be able to satisfy our economy while also being able to conserve our natural landscapes. I am looking into defoliation because it is suspected that this plantation is infected by Swiss needle cast which causes the stomata of the needles to be blocked, and results in the trees shedding their needles prematurely, so it is important to try and identify this now. I have also been working on plans and budgets to build a trail through the plantation, and building a trailhead kiosk for hikers to be informed of the plantation after measuring all of the trees.
By the end of my co-op I should have accomplished measuring over 800 trees, built a trail and a kiosk, and have written a report on the procedures, results and future management recommendations for this study
Looking out towards the tall trees visible from the UBC Forestry offices, Lori Daniels reflects on the environmental firestorm that her children, she and other people from her generation could face.
“We are experiencing the effects of climate change that I used to think would mostly land on the shoulders of future generations; but, all indicators show it will have severe impacts even within the lifetime of Baby Boomers,” says the UBC Forestry professor.
The past five years saw BC’s worst wildfire seasons to date in 2017, 2018 and 2021. The most recent came with the record-breaking heat dome that scorched the landscape, hollowing out rivers and streams and baking forests tinder dry. Over 850,000 hectares burned, prompting a state of emergency in BC from July 21 to Sept. 14, 2021, that resulted in widespread evacuations and property loss.
Just as the fires settled, the atmospheric rivers of mid-Nov. to early Dec. 2021 flooded hundreds of homes and businesses across Southern BC, and triggered mudslides, rockslides and pounding high water that washed out stretches of highway, railroads and bridges.
While businesses and homes can rebuild – often at a significant cost – and many damaged forests and wildlife habitats will recover, a shifting climate is leaving its mark.
“We know that forests are resilient to a fairly wide range of environmental variation,” says Lori, who studies the effects of fire on forest ecosystem health. “Many of our tree species are adapted to diverse weather and climate-related disturbances like fire, wind and insect outbreaks. But historical and evolutionary boundaries are being pushed.”
“Individual plants and trees are stressed to their physiological limits as the cascading effects of climate change – such as the prolonged heat dome that drove extreme wildfires – led to the decline and death of large swaths of forests.”
A Feb. 28, 2022 release by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change entitled “Climate Change: A Threat to Human Wellbeing and Health of the Planet” projected that the earth’s average temperature will increase by about 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades. The leading international body for climate change-related research and knowledge-sharing points a finger squarely at human activity for the increasing number of heatwaves, droughts and floods, as well as mass species mortality.
Forest regeneration failures are already happening in the American West following extreme weather events, notes Lori. “Some forests are not regenerating after the fire, and are instead becoming shrublands and grasslands.
There are signs that the same is happening in BC’s warmest and driest ecosystems – the ponderosa pine and interior Douglas-fir zones – which may leave some places in BC with less forest in the future.”
Widespread impacts
Wildfire affects us all in some way. Smoke from fires can travel high into the stratosphere and be carried on winds over thousands of kilometres. A mix of fine particulate matter and gasses, blazes that sometimes rip through or beside communities can contain volatile organic compounds, such as the carcinogen formaldehyde, according to a BC Centre for Disease Control fact sheet on the health effects of wildfire smoke.
Fuels consumed by fire, such as wood, can also release carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, all of which are heat-trapping greenhouse gasses that are responsible for stoking heat waves and deleterious climatic events.
Despite wildfire’s reach, rural and Indigenous communities often bear more of the burden of wildfire than urban settings. The devastating 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire burned over 192,000 hectares throughout BC’s southern interior, destroying homes in the Boston Flats and Pressy Lake area and directly impacting the traditional territories of eight Secwépemc Nation communities.
Flooded farmland in Abbotsford, BC, Nov. 2021.
“Indigenous peoples globally are on the front lines of climate change and other human-caused environmental impacts,” states Sarah Dickson-Hoyle, a PhD candidate and Public Scholar with UBC Forestry. “They have experienced significant impacts from deforestation, resource extraction, fire suppression, mega-fires burning their territories, along with changes to sensitive watersheds, salmon and wildlife populations.”
Her report “Elephant Hill: Secwépemc Leadership and Lessons Learned from the Collective Story of Wildfire Recovery,” co-led with Char John of the Secwepemcúl’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society, calls for supporting Indigenous leadership and decision-making in fire and forest stewardship. It also lays out a framework for engaging Indigenous communities in wildfire management, including recovery, moving forwards.
“Indigenous communities have the rights, skills and expertise to be involved in all aspects of wildfire management on their territories, whether that is involvement in fire response, planning to mitigate fires or working on the land and community recovery plan following a wildfire, says Sarah.”
The report also recommends a move toward joint decision-making and partnerships between national and provincial government agencies and First Nations, along with funding to support Indigenous communities with implementing wildfire recovery, rehabilitation and management practices.
Putting wildfire management in the hands of affected communities is also central to the community forest approach. In their 2020 study, “BC Community Forest Perspectives and Engagement in Wildfire Management,” Sarah, Lori and their co-authors*, found that many communities are redoubling their efforts to establish proactive wildfire management plans to mitigate against future catastrophes.
“Community forests have emerged as leaders by employing innovative solutions to address wildfire risk and protect their communities and the forests on which they depend,” the report states. “For many community forests, the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons catalyzed their focus on proactive wildfire management, and galvanized community support for these efforts.”
A cascading effect
Elephant Hill wildfire viewed from the air, July 2017. Photo courtesy of Paul Simakoff-Ellims.
Forests and the forestry profession have an important role to play to stem the tide of climate change. From carbon sequestration in soils and trees to cooling communities with urban canopies, implementing selective logging practices and connecting the dots between forest vegetation and salmon survival rates, the diverse pursuits within the profession are part of the global vision for a sustainable future.
For example, UBC Forestry Prof. Younes Alila’s research has put into motion a paradigm shift that could alter forest harvesting practices in flood-prone areas. He found that a previously widely accepted approach to determining whether stand harvest – ing was influencing flood likelihood doesn’t hold water.
The chronological pairing (CP) method does not track floods in an area over time, but instead would evaluate the difference in the severity of floods between non-clear-cut and clear-cut areas during a storm event or snowmelt season, one event at a time, Younes says. On the other hand, frequency pairing (FP) tracks simultaneously the number and severity of floods in clear-cut and non-clear-cut areas over long periods of time to determine whether floods are becoming more severe and/or frequent in one or the other.
In his investigations, Younes also found that clear-cutting is indeed likely contributing to an increase in the frequency and severity of floods. Treed areas shade the ground, slowing snowpack melt when temperatures increase, he explains. Without treetops and root systems to absorb rain and slow snowmelt, cleared areas can act as water basins. On mountainsides, runoff has nowhere to go but down, spilling into and sometimes overwhelming low-lying areas.
“Current research has found cases of 100-year floods becoming 25 times more frequent in watersheds of very flat topographies.”
The floods affecting the Fraser Valley may be a case in point. Its history of flooding includes a significant flood in 1894 and a major flood in 1948 when the Fraser River broke its banks, destroying dikes and 2,300 homes. Largely attributed to snow-melt, the damage from the flood in ’48 cost around $20 million, or what would be around $215 million today. By comparison, the price tag to repair the damage from the Nov. 2021 flooding across BC is estimated to be in the billions of dollars.
Current Wildfires
Fire suppression and forest management policies have resulted in denser, more homogenous forests in western North America. Landscapes have become stocked with fuel, ready to burn. Layered on top of these volatile forest conditions is climate change, which has further dried out fuels, increased lightning ignitions and created dangerous fire weather conditions.
1. Fuel loading
Fire suppression on broad scales has led to the accumulation of fuel in increasingly volatile configurations in western North America’s forests. Surface and ladder fuels have accumulated, elevating the risk of severe, stand-replacing fires.
2. Densification and infilling
Fire suppression also homogenized the patchwork that sustained historical fire regimes. In place of a mosaic of forest and non-forest, fire suppression increased the cover and density of largely coniferous forests.
3. Forestry practices
Settler forest management practices contributed to more homogenous, even-aged, conifer-dominated landscapes, which can quickly carry and spread the fire.
4. Fire behaviour
The combination of climate change, fire suppression and forest management decisions has increased the risk of large, severe wildfires and extreme fire weather, leading to an increase in burned areas and behaviours, such as spotting.
These graphics form part of the PICS’ Wildfire & Carbon Project led by academic and government forestry scientists and experts in Canada and the US, including faculty and researchers at UBC Forestry. The project is investigating sustainable forestry and wildfire management strategies that minimize the impacts of climate change and support BC’s bioeconomy through such things as enhanced carbon sinks, economic opportunities for forest fibre and reduced wildfire emissions.
Future-proofing
In the face of increasingly severe climate impacts, strategic interventions through forest management can reduce wildfire emissions and risk, increase forest carbon sinks and enhance BC’s bioeconomy.
1. Prescribed burning
To reduce the risk of severe wildfire, intentional burning during shoulder seasons and moderate fire weather can reduce fuel loads and mimic the historical role of fire on landscapes.
2. Forest thinning
By decreasing fuel loads and forest connectivity, forest thinning can reduce wildfire risk. Strategically using biomass after it leaves the forest can create bioeconomic opportunities and keep carbon out of the atmosphere.
3. Enhance deciduous species
Replanting and encouraging the growth of deciduous species can enhance biodiversity and reduce wildfire risk. Increasing the use of timber from deciduous species can create further bioeconomic opportunities.
4. Post-fire salvage
Strategic removal of fire-killed trees following a burn can reduce future wildfire risk, redirect timber harvest from live stands to those already killed by fire and help minimize forest carbon loss to the atmosphere.
5. Bioeconomy facilities
Strategically placed facilities throughout the forested landscape can support innovative uses of biomass and harvest residues.
Images courtesy of the PICS’ Wildfire & Carbon Project. Graphic design by Dale Kilian.
New approaches and technology
While there is no one answer to prevent flooding, Younes champions selective logging over clear-cutting. This, he says, can mitigate against catastrophic floods and prevent damage to watersheds, fish habitats and the livelihoods of the people who rely on forest resources for subsistence hunting and foraging, as well as businesses, products and employment.
The time to start making the shift is now, he adds, as once trees have been removed, the road to recovery is long. “In the first 20 years after replanting a forest in the interior dry snow environment, there is no more than a 20% recovery of its hydrologic capacity,” Younes explains. “It can take 60 to 80 years before its full hydrologic function – ability to absorb rainfall and runoff, and slow snowmelt – can be reached.”
Implementing new evidence-based forest management practices is in the works, but will require more investment in the technology and research needed to get us there, says UBC Forestry Assoc. Prof. Dominik Roeser.
“The only way forward is to come together and develop new, innovative science-based solutions,” he says. “Business-as-usual is not working anymore, as we see with the increasing severity of wildfires and floods, along with protests over logging.”
Change needs to happen at different scales, whether at the block, landscape or provincial levels. The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), for example, which launched in 2008, is bridging research, industry, government, First Nations and non-profit stakeholders to find solutions to the global climate crisis.
Lori and Dominik are both part of the PICS Wildfire and Carbon project, which aims to use science-based data to inform forest management strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires, enhance forest carbon sinks and assess bioeconomic opportunities for forest fibre. Results could be incorporated into tools, such as TimberOps, a virtual reality platform that enables forest managers to visualize and plan complex forest management scenarios based on multiple data inputs that help with identifying a smart path forward, says Dominik.
“We are working on solutions to show where different disturbances have taken place and how they adversely affect other landscape values, such as wildlife, First Nations cultural sites, streams and fish habitats.”
Visualization tools can help forecast how fire and active management could impact landscapes five, 10 and 15 years down the road, Dominik adds. Researchers can then inform decision-making on, for example, when to allow fires to burn to remove the buildup of fuels in fire-suppressed areas.
“TimberOps allows us to zoom in and out of different geographic locations and forest management scenarios,” he says. “Together with our partners, LlamaZOO and FPInnovations, we’re also laying the groundwork for a forest visualization lab at UBC to develop the knowledge base within this arena.”
At the block level, selective logging practices, such as thinning and partial cuts, are gaining traction, but the tools and know-how to make them happen on a broader scale in BC need to be amassed, notes Dominik.
“We need the latest technology combined with suitable layout approaches and operator training; and, we need to start preparing students to address the challenges coming up in the sector,” he says.
For example, commercial thinning, as well as fuel treatment practices, could benefit from the adoption of single-grip harvesters and forwarders that use an operator-controlled arm to grip and extract individual trees without undue damage to nearby trees, and forest soil and habitats. However, this technology is expensive, and its competitive edge is based on optimal deployment through tailored harvesting methods and the up to two years it takes in other jurisdictions to establish well-trained operators. To address this, Dominik’s Forest Action Hub has invested in a simulator to address these research and training gaps.
“We need bold action moving forward to really make a difference,” he says. “When it comes to silvicultural practices, we need to try new things. Thinning, partial cuts or harvesting certain areas more intensively than others, it all comes down to developing the forestry profession of the future using the best available tools.”
Branchlines
Led by our very own Development and Alumni Engagement Office, and shaped by valuable feedback from our alumni community, the Spring 2022 issue of Branchlines showcases the dynamic and multifaceted fields of forestry.
UBC Faculty of Forestry research projects were among the 160 university-wide projects to receive more than $32 million through the 2022 Discovery research grants competition.
UBC Forestry’s Dr. Tara Martin, Liber Ero Chair in Conservation in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, continues to make an impact on addressing complex conservation problems – now with the help of some generous donations from our community.
After working for the Australian National Agency for over 20 years, Dr. Martin returned to Canada with a vision for creating a centre of excellence for conservation decision-making. With the help of Val and Dick Bradshaw, Dr. Martin has received $3 million, with UBC adding in $2 million, for a $5 million chair.
UBC alumnus Reid Carter was so inspired by Tara’s vision that he invested $1.5 million in her work to expand her impact not only in Canada but beyond.
“I think we’re living in a time when we have so much negative news, and the world seems very dire,” says Dr. Martin. “But I want to give [future generations] hope that we are finding solutions and implementing those solutions … and we’re seeing species recover. We’re recovering viable salmon populations. We’re recovering migratory birds. We’re restoring amazing Garry oak ecosystems in southwestern British Columbia.”
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