Within the Faculty of Forestry, there are several research labs, groups, and projects. Visit the website of each project to find out more.
Adaption of Asia-Pacific Forests to Climate Change
A project designed to address uncertainties in forest management policies and help forest managers and policymakers to develop effective management strategies to maintain resilient forest ecosystems for adaptation to climate change.
AdapTree
A project that aims to improve provincial seed transfer policy and operational forest management response to climate change.
Advanced Renewable Materials Lab
The lab’s primary goal is to construct a sustainable future with the design of renewable building blocks harvested from nature.
Asia Forest Research Centre
The AFRC works to promote quality education and research capacity by enhancing relationships between the UBC Faculty of Forestry and its partners in Asia.
AWARE
A Collaborative Research and Development project that seeks to use remote sensing to enhance Canada’s forest inventory and to improve the modeling of forested ecosystems.
Bamboo Applications and Management
The Bamboo Applications and Management Group is dedicated to conducting research on the social, economic, & environmental potential of bamboo
Belowground Ecosystem Group
The primary goal of the Centre is to conduct interdisciplinary collaborative research towards the eventual scientific goal of linking structure and function in belowground ecosystems.
Business, Sustainability and Technology Lab
The Business, Sustainability and Technology (BST) lab conducts interdisciplinary research into the intersection between modern technologies, businesses, and social and environmental impacts.
Centre for Advanced Wood Processing
CAWP conducts applied research, offers a wide range of continuing education, training and extension programs, and assists the industry by supplying undergraduate students with specialist knowledge of wood products manufacturing for cooperative education placements.
Centre for Alpine Studies
The Centre for Alpine Studies serves to coordinate scientific research conducted on alpine ecosystems.
Centre for Forest Gene Conservation
The CFGC studies the genetic structure of forest trees and genetic diversity in breeding and deployment of improved varieties to meet current and future environmental challenges.
CoAdapTree
CoAdapTree aims to develop strategies and recommendations, such as climate-based seed transfer and assisted migration that will help us grow healthy forests that are better adapted to future conditions. The CoAdapTree Project also aims to develop genomic tools and strategies for improved tree breeding, not only for warmer or drier climate conditions but also for resistance to pathogens.
Collaboration for Advanced Landscape Planning
An informal group of researchers at the University of British Columbia specializing in landscape visualization, environmental perception, public land management processes, and sustainable landscapes.
Cool Tools Warm World
This research cluster focuses on the design and testing of digital media to enhance learning and influence behaviour.
Cranston Research Group
The Cranston Research Group aims to design high-performance materials to replace those that are based on non-renewable resources by learning from nature and using biological components.
Cultivating Forest Stewardship
A partnership between UBC Forestry and UBC Farm, this website is designed to provide students and teachers with learning materials relevant to forestry and encourage public awareness of forestry products and services. You will find introductory aids for the forestry ‘beginner’ as well as comprehensive learning tools for prescription and management planning.
Energy Resources, Development and Environment Laboratory (ERDELab)
The Energy Resources, Development, and Environment Lab (ERDELab) uses inter-disciplinary approaches to research problems at the intersection of technology, environment, and development.
Forest Carbon Research Lab
An initiative targeted to aggressively implement large-scale action plans such as a global emissions trading scheme (ETS) to help meet global reduction targets.
FACT – Forests and Communities in Transition
An initiative dedicated to research, dialogue, and knowledge exchange aimed at contributing to the development of more resilient and liveable forest-dependent communities.
Forest Carbon Policy
A project funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions that aims to generate recommendations for regionally differentiated climate change mitigation alternatives for BC’s forest sector.
Forest Measurements and Biometrics
Forest measurements and biometrics involve developing and testing methods for taking and using measures from forested lands, including statistical sampling and analysis methods.
Future Delta 2.0
Future Delta 2.0 explores the use of video gaming to encourage exploration of local climate change challenges and solutions in an innovative place-based game environment by high school students and other community members.
Genetic Data Centre
The Genetic Data Centre trains graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and faculty members in the use of molecular tools, data collection, and data analysis. This laboratory is a common meeting ground for molecular applications in population, quantitative, and conservation genetics.
Grizzly-PAW
Grizzly-PAW is an NSERC CRD research project that focusses on the grizzly bears in the Yellowhead region of Alberta.
Industrial Engineering Research Group
The IE research group comprises of graduate students and research scholars working in the area of operations management, efficiency and productivity, and information technology under the supervision of Dr Taraneh Sowlati.
Integrated Remote Sensing Studio
Advanced inventory techniques and application of remote sensing imagery.
MGEM Project Library
The Master of Geomatics for Environmental Management (MGEM) Project Library is a repository of applied research undertaken by students in the program.
National Parks Research Center
The National Parks Research Center studies national park systems all over the world to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on protected areas.
Pacific Salmon Ecology Conservation Lab
The Pacific Salmon Ecology Conservation Lab is committed to the study of salmonid ecology, behaviour and physiology, and to providing management systems with information needed for the conservation and sustainable use of fish resources.
Peter Arcese Lab
The Peter Arcese Lab addresses a wide range of questions related to the ecology and evolution of small populations and the indirect effects of humans on the ecology, evolution, and conservation of bird, mammal, and plant populations.
Rethink Silviculture — Discussion Board for Regeneration Practices
A blog that encourages the discussion of experiences, ideas, and opinions related to silviculture practices.
SCHIRP – Salal Cedar Hemlock Integrated Research Program
SCHIRP’s research is to determine the underlying causes of poor growth of regenerating western redcedar on cedar-hemlock cutovers invaded by salal on the west coast of North America and to establish the best operational means for improving productivity on these sites.
Simard Lab
The Simard Lab is run by Suzanne Simard.
Social-Ecological Systems Research Group
The Environmental Social Sciences (ESS) span a range of disciplines (e.g. anthropology, economics, human geography, political science, sociology) and associated analytics for understanding the diverse ways that humans value and interact with non-human nature. ESS includes approaches that focus on individual behaviour and decision making as they relate to the environment, as well as broader structural processes, institutions, and governance. Insights from ESS research help us understand the full complexity of environmental issues, and from this, to develop socially-informed and contextually appropriate solutions.
Stable Isotope Facility
The SIF provides analytical services to any department on campus and welcomes sample submissions from other academic institutions, government, and industry.
Stream and Riparian Research Laboratory
This research program addresses questions related to the mechanisms that structure stream and riparian area communities, and how various land-use practices affect those systems.
Sunderland Lab
The Sunderland Lab performs research focused on applied research, biodiversity, conservation sustainable resource management, and linkages to levering policy influence.
Sustainable Engineered Structural Solutions Laboratory
The research focus of the Sustainable Engineered Structural Solutions Laboratory is on developing high-performance carbon-neutral systems and structures, as well as related performance-based optimum design procedures for engineers to provide them with cost-effective solutions for the next generation of buildings and sustainable urban development, also featuring structural resilience against extreme events (e.g., earthquakes).
Sustainable Functional Biomaterials Lab
The Sustainable Functional Biomaterials Lab is run by Dr Feng Jiang, Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Sustainable Functional Biomaterials.
Tree Molecular Biology Research Lab
UBC Tree Molecular Biology Research Lab’s areas of research include tree biotechnology, the relationship between genes expression and phenotypic fibre characteristics, plant metabolism (metabolomics), cell wall development, cellulose biosynthesis, lignin biosynthesis, lignocellulosic chemistry and ultrastructure as it relates to wood quality, fibre morphology and chemistry as related to the formation and properties of paper, enzyme applications in the pulp, and paper industry and enzyme-substrate interactions.
TREE RINGS: Reading Between the Lines – Tree Ring Lab
The Tree Ring Lab performs research that combines forest ecology and dendrochronology to investigate the influences of natural and anthropogenic disturbances and climate variation on the dynamics of temperate forests of western North and South America.
Urban Forestry Project Showcase
Highlights of current faculty research projects related to Urban Forestry.
Vibrant Forest Landscapes
Research lab interested in the processes that increase peoples’ prosperity and encourage broad sustainability outcomes in forest landscapes.
Wildlife Coexistence Lab
This research lab is led by Cole Burton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest Resources Management on wildlife and conservation.