Welcome to the Faculty of Forestry’s website. This year is the International Year of Forests and the Faculty will be leading a number of exciting events to celebrate this. These include an international workshop on adaptation to climate change and a forestry leaders’ summit. In addition, we have plans to involve our undergraduates and graduates in helping to spread the message that our forests represent an incredibly valuable resource that we need to look after carefully if they are to generate the goods and services that we expect of them. This will require people: there is a growing demand for experts in forest management, conservation, forest operations, wood sciences and forest sciences, and we have the programs in place to train such individuals.
Today’s forestry goes a lot further than this. For example, forests play a critical role in climate change. By preventing deforestation and the degradation of forests, we can significantly reduce planetary carbon dioxide emissions, and carbon management is increasingly being factored into how we manage forests. When wood is harvested, it is important to ensure that the carbon it contains is stored as long as possible. Buildings provide one good way to store wood, especially when those buildings are well-designed and made to last. It is appropriate that we will be welcoming a new faculty member specializing in wood building design later this year.
A major change in forestry has been the growing recognition of the links between people and forests. Many of British Columbia’s Aboriginal communities epitomize this relationship, and a priority for our Faculty is the improvement of the already strong links that we have with Aboriginal people. Our
First Nations Initiative has anticipated the growing role that First Nations will play in the forest sector of the province and we will be growing our
Community and Aboriginal Forestry Program. We welcome Aboriginal students and scholars to the Faculty, and we will be increasing our engagement with Aboriginal communities in mutually supportive and productive opportunities.
Our Faculty has amassed a huge array of expertise and many of our Faculty members can count themselves as being amongst the best in their field. In the past, we have tended to focus on British Columbia, but it is clear that while we still have major contributions to make here, the value of our expertise extends far beyond the province’s boundaries. We are leading or participating in many international projects, and many of these are described in our Faculty newsletter,
Branchlines. If you are not already receiving this, please contact the editor at
sue.watts@ubc.ca.
As we move forward, the diversity of our activities, the quality of our Faculty, and our location in one of the world’s premier universities will ensure that we are in a position to make a real difference to the lives of people worldwide. I hope that you will join us in doing so.