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The Faculty of Forestry is one of the top institutions globally in forest-related education and research. The unique breadth of expertise we possess allows us to integrate new knowledge across many disciplines. Offering both master’s and doctoral programs, our graduate students learn from a dynamic and diverse group of researchers from around the world.
The Forest Sciences Centre is a showcase for construction using Canadian forest products, and was architecturally designed to mimic the landscape of British Columbia: towering trees, mountains, and blue-green waters. The 17,505-square-metre Forest Sciences complex has 11 classrooms, 2 lecture theatres, teaching laboratories, office space, computer labs, study areas, and a cafeteria, and houses the Faculty’s three departments.
Built alongside the Forest Sciences Centre is the 3,730-square-metre Centre for Advanced Wood Processing. It is Canada’s national centre of excellence for education and research related to wood products processing and advanced wood products manufacturing, and works to advance knowledge that fosters job creation, stabilizes forest-dependent communities, encourages increased value recovery, and ensures the sustainable management of Canada’s forests. This building includes two 25-seat classrooms, a machine lab, a simulator lab and a computer lab.
Within the Faculty of Forestry, there are also several research groups. Visit the website of each project to find out more.
Off-campus facilities include two Research Forests: the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest in Maple Ridge and the Alex Fraser Research Forest near Williams Lake. These are working forests located throughout the province where students and faculty can study in an outdoor setting. Fish and wildlife, silviculture, forest harvesting, forest ecology, forest management, and resources management figure prominently in these field studies.
UBC Forestry is turning out a new generation of foresters, and faculty are committed to meeting future challenges in forestry through in-depth, cutting edge research. In fact, UBC Forestry receives the highest level of forestry research funding of any forestry faculty in Canada.
In the 2017/2018 fiscal year, members of the Faculty Forestry were awarded a total of over $12 million in research funding.
Our wide breadth of research includes topics such as tree rings, integrated remote sensing, bioenergy, forest conservation genetics, landscape visualizations, African forest conservation and development, alpine studies, climate change, and advanced wood processing.
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Forestry.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Dr. Fell studied the health effects of natural materials on occupants of the built indoor environment. He found that the application of wood surfaces in buildings decreased stress responses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Spetic studied the interrelationships between competitiveness and sustainability of two natural resources industries in British Columbia, New Zealand, Chile, and Brazil. With pressing demands for improved environmental and social business practices in natural resource sectors, his study contributes to theory development of competition by situating sustainability as a fundamental requirement. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Farnden investigated the long term growth of forests as influenced by the abundance and spatial pattern of young trees. He subsequently developed planning tools to help forest managers ensure that reforestation activities effectively contribute to a desired future forest condition. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Deslippe showed that climate warming changes soil fungal and bacterial communities in ways that facilitate shrub expansion onto Arctic tundra. Her studies help us to understand how species interactions determine the response of an ecosystem to climate change factors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Gong sought to understand investment decisions of farmers in rural China, related to afforestation. She found that much of the land remained unforested as a result of constrained contractual rules, property rights allocation disputes, and low levels of social capital in some villages. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Zhou developed a computer model to simulate the formation process of engineered wood products. His model improves understanding of the wood product manufacturing process and may be useful for optimizing manufacturing operations in industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Tedder investigated common pool resources and how rules and customs emerge to coordinate their consumption. The research sought to understand why, when and how intervention in this market is necessary to overcome a "Tragedy of the Commons" outcome. The resulting intervention framework is novel in the way it links theory with practice. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Cyanolichens are a symbiotic relationship that nutritionally benefits both fungal- and cyanobacterial-partners. Dr. Campbell's research suggests that exogenous-sugar, secreted by overstorey poplar trees, facilitates rare cyanolichen communities in interior BC. Her research on the ecological interaction between poplar and cyanolichens indicates that lichen-partners are not always faithful to their relationship. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Hegde evaluated the contribution of the miombo woodlands to household economy in Mozambique. He investigated whether economic incentives to smallholder farmers, provided under a Payments-for-Ecosystem Services (PES) based model, result in improved ecosystem services provision and improved household welfare measured by household cash income earnings and consumption. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Palma applied a new method of robust optimization to different problems in forest resources management characterized by high levels of uncertainty. He showed that this method can help decision-makers to make robust decisions and avoid irreversible consequences when facing uncertainties and long time horizons typical of forest resource management. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |