Black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) is an important wild food plant for people and wildlife in the East Kootenays of British Columbia.  Over the past 50 years changes in forestry practices, and the intensity of timber harvesting have changed the forest and the habitat where black huckleberries grow.  This research project will employ scientific and ethnographic […]

  The purpose of this study is to investigate the short-term responses of understory vegetation to riparian thinning treatments and to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments in accelerating the development of old growth habitat. The outcome of this study has important implications for restoration ecologists and forest managers at Clayoquot Forest Management Ltd. This […]

In response to protests against logging of old growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island, the government of British Columbia appointed a Scientific Panel to develop guidelines for sustainable forest management and logging. On July 6, 1995 the Government of British Columbia accepted the report of the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel (CSSP) and committed to […]

  The objective of the project will be to design and support the fabrication of an automated cultivating planter mechanism. The task of the planter/cultivator will be to transplant 3 rows of seedlings, with variable spacing, a single pass.  A production target of 1200 trees per hour is desired.  There are many design challenges present […]

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have been considered for various applications including forest monitoring. WSN allow the user to have real-time spatial monitoring of the parameters of interest. For instance, with forest fire detections, the sensor nodes measure weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, precipitation and wind speed. Then, these parameters are forwarded to the control […]

Forest certification is a voluntary market-based instrument to promote sustainable forest management (SFM). Although, large areas of forests have been certified against different certification schemes in British Columbia, there has been a recent slowdown in the uptake of forest certification due to a number of factors, including a lack of awareness. Architects and builders have […]

Recently introduced micronized copper wood preservative system has successfully captured most of the treated wood market in the USA; however, it cannot be acceptable in Canada because the wood surface is mottled and streaky in appearance when it is applied to Canadian wood species (spruce-pine fir). This problem may be solved by partially solubilizing copper […]

BCTMP (Bleached chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp) or HYP (high-yield pulp) is an important sector in the Canadian market pulp business, and most of them has been exported to Europe and Asia and over half of it is used as middle-ply furnish in Folding Boxboard (FBB). FBB requires high bending stiffness for crush resistance, z-directional strength for preventing […]

The research objectives for this proposed Mitacs project are to identify the forested Tribal Lands in the US that hold the most promise for participating in the developing regional US and Canadian offset markets. The partner organization is Offsetters Clean Technology, a BC based company with expertise in carbon management and advisory services in Canada. […]

The species of European hawkweeds present in British Columbia are aggressive and ecologically detrimental invaders of meadows, parks, agricultural lands and rangelands. Left unmanaged, these species could cost the province of British Columbia upwards of $60 million in economic losses by 2020. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MoFLNRO) is responsible for […]

The Honna River is a source of drinking water for the Village of Queen Charlotte on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. There is concern that sediment from a highly traveled logging road is contributing to poor water quality in the Honna River. This project is following up on the work of Elizabeth Baird (2010 Mitacs Intern), […]

The purpose of this Mitacs Accelerate project is to create a cross-platform mobile tree mapping application that would serve as a learning resource and participatory interface for citizen engagement concerning urban tree stewardship. The tool will be prototyped for Grange Park, a prominent and heavily used urban park in downtown Toronto. Development of the mobile […]