Visit the website at http://www.forestry.ubc.ca/

The University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry is a hub of forestry training and education as well as a tremendous research institution that is committed to meeting future challenges in forestry through in-depth, cutting edge research.

The Faculty of Forestry houses three different departments: the Department of Forest Resources Management, the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, and the Department of Wood Science. Each department specializes in an array of research fields and topics.

The faculty offers the popular UBC Forestry Co-op program, which allows students to gain valuable paid work experience and allows employers to fill short-term hiring needs as well as pre-screen and train potential future employees. For further information on the employer benefits of the Forestry Co-op program, click here.

Boasting a large network of engaged alumni, the UBC Faculty of Forestry prepares a monthly alumni newsletter in which events, programs, news and opportunities are presented.

Faculty of Forestry publications:

Publications by Dr. David H. Cohen (Professor, Department of Wood Science).
– Forest Products Marketing and Management

Publications by Dr. Robert A. Kozak (Professor and Head, Department of Wood Science).
– Sustainable Business Management

Branchlines magazine is a quarterly publication highlighting some of the research carried out by students and faculty members.

Ongoing research:

Research highlights of ongoing or recently completed projects.

The members of the faculty have very wide ranging research interests. Their general areas of expertise can be found here.

Within the Faculty of Forestry, there are several research groups and projects. Visit the website of each project to find out more:

Atlas – SIMFOR Project
ATLAS is a spatially explicit harvest simulation model. SIMFOR is a tool designed to assist forest managers in evaluating the consequences of forest management scenarios on landscape and habitat variables.

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.

Centre for Advanced Wood Processing
CAWP conducts applied research, offers a wide range of continuing education, training and extension programs, and assists industry by supplying undergraduate students with specialist knowledge of wood products manufacturing for cooperative education placements.

Centre for Applied Conservation Research
Canada’s leading research centre for solving complex, applied conservation problems within managed and natural landscapes.

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.

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.

.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 Ecosystem Management Simulation Group
This group is working on developing a number of different forest ecosystem models and management tools with which to make long-term projections of forest conditions and values that may result from different ways of managing today’s forests.

Forest Genetics and Breeding
A group of labs and facilities dedicated to studying population genetics.

Forest Measurements and Biometrics
Forest measurements and biometrics  involves developing and testing methods for taking and using measures from forested lands, including statistical sampling and analysis methods.

Forest Policy Resources
This site provides a forest policy resource from a variety of perspectives, on the topics that make up the field of forest policy.

Forest Values Project
A project designed to develop a questionnaire that would enable forest managers to better measure a broad array of values and attitudes associated with forest characteristics and forest management.

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.

Interactive Digital Environmental Assessment Lab
A multi-use research facility that investigates a number of current topics relevant to Forestry, Psychology, and Computer Science.

Landscape Ecology Lab
A research lab which addresses the interactions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Laboratory
A lab which studies adult salmon migration survival, behaviour, energetics, physiology, habitat use, and environmental cues.

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.

Sustainable Business Management Lab
Research interests revolve around sustainable business management practices and issues and providing business solutions to complex problems related to sustainable development, forestry, wood products and the emerging conservation economy.

Sustainable Forest Management Research Group
The Sustainable Forest Management Laboratory was established in 2000 to encourage inter-disciplinary research into problems related to sustainable forest management.

TerreWEB
The goal of TerreWEB is to create an enriched, innovative, collaborative graduate training environment that addresses key scientific gaps in understanding the impacts of global change on terrestrial ecosystems and developing strategies for mitigation and adaptation, and evaluating the factors underlying global change communication deficits, developing novel communication strategies for addressing these deficits, and measuring the efficacy of those strategies.

Timber Building Technology Group
An interdisciplinary group involving the UBC Departments of Architecture, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and Wood Science.The members of this group undertake research and develop educational programs in wood products processing.

Watershed Hydrology Laboratory
This research lab provides scientifically based information, knowledge and expert advice to promote sound policies, solve urgent operational problems and provide a solid foundation on which to build sustainable water resources management in BC.

Windthrow Research Group
A research group focusing on the windthrow phenomenon.

Research forests:

In addition to the on-going research at the University of British Columbia, UBC Forestry also has two research forests where researchers can find a research-friendly forest environment and students can enhance their classroom learning with field studies. The two research forests are the Alex Fraser Research Forest located near Williams Lake, and the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest located near Maple Ridge.