Welcome to FRST 303

Into the Woods: An Introduction

to Forest Science
Dr. Sally Aitken, Professor
Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences
Land acknowledgement
• I will be teaching mainly from the tradi4onal and unceded
territory of the Laich-Kwil-Tach Peoples and the Wei Wai Kai
Na4on on Quadra Island
• UBC’s Vancouver campus is on the tradi4onal and unceded
territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Na4on
• Many of you will be joining this class from the tradi4onal
territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) or
səlilwəta ɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Na4ons
• The forests of what is now Bri4sh Columbia have provided
food, shelter, wood and fiber to First Na4ons Peoples since
4me immemorial
• They hold tradi4onal ecological knowledge about these
forests

The Reconcilia,on Pole by Haida Master Carver James

Hart (7idansuu), carved from an 800-year-old western
redcedar tree from Haida Gwaii
Objectives for today

• Welcome to the class and introduc1on to the

teaching team
• Course structure and organiza1on
• Goals for you this term
• Introduc1on to plants, trees and forests
Course structure
• Course has been redesigned for this year - read the syllabus!
• Most lectures will be live online Tues & Thurs 11:00 am: 45
to 60 min presentation, short break, Q &A
• All lectures will be recorded and posted by the end of the
day
• If you watch synchronously, you need to participate in online
polls for participation marks
• If you watch recorded lectures asynchronously, you are
expected to answer embedded Kaltura quizzes for
participation marks and submit answers at the end
• Take notes and ask questions if you don’t understand
something
• No textbook, but there may be suggested readings
 Lecture topics
05-Sep 1. Introduction: Trees and forests
10-Sep 2. Where did they come from? How trees and other plants evolved
12-Sep 3. Seeds: Structure and germination
17-Sep 4. How plants grow tall: Primary growth
19-Sep 5. How trees grow wide: Secondary growth
Tree Biology

24-Sep 6. Photosynthesis: How plants make their own food

26-Sep 7. Water: How can it get to the top of a 100 m tall tree?
01-Oct 8. Surviving drought
03-Oct 9. Changing colour: the science of autumn
08-Oct 10. Getting ready for winter: Buds and dormancy
10-Oct 11. Surviving winter
15-Oct 12. Spring arrives: Leafing out and flowering
17-Oct 13. Reproductive diversity and pollination
22-Oct 14. How trees clone themselves and how humans clone them
24-Oct 15. Midterm exam
29-Oct 16. Types of wood: Why trees make them and how humans use them
Challenges in forestry

31-Oct 17. Dendrochronology: What tree rings tell us about the past
05-Nov 18. Forestry: Not rocket science, but much more complicated!
07-Nov 19. What’s so special about old growth? You can write the midterm in the usual
12-Nov Midterm break Nov 11 - 13 lecture Cme (11 am – 12:20 pm) or from
14-Nov 20. Wildfire: Do we need more or less?
6:30 to 8:00 pm on Oct. 24
19-Nov 21. Forest fungi: The good, the bad, and the ugly
21-Nov 22. Adaptation of trees to climate
26-Nov 23. Impacts of climate change on forests
28-Nov 24. Assisted migration
03-Dec 25. Wrap-up
Grading
• Midterm exam* 25%
• Species iden4fica4on exam* 15%
• Photo essay 10%
• Par4cipa4on through answering lecture ques4ons and a
short weekly Canvas quiz 10%
• Final exam* 40%

*These exams will require using the Respondus Lockdown

Browser on Canvas
Lecture participation and
course communication
• You can skip completing questions in 3 lectures within 48 hours and still get 5% for
participation (but you are still responsible for that lecture content)
• You need to complete all weekly quizzes by the following Monday at 9 am.
• Don’t email us about missing class or quizzes unless you have a serious illness or issue – with
>1800 students, we simply can’t keep up with a high volume of messages.
• Come to office hours if you need to discuss an issue.
Assignment: Photo essay (10%)
• To combat “tree blindness” and to learn about tree
dynamics in autumn, you will be repeatedly observing and
recording changes to one deciduous tree throughout the
term.
• Ideally, you will take six photos at least one week apart.
Be sure to catch changes in October and early November.
• You will briefly explain the changes you observe based on
the tree biology you learn in class.
• There will be an option to do an alternative, creative
version of this assignment (e.g., art, poetry) if you are so
inclined.
• The assignment will be self-graded.
• Details are on Canvas and will be finalized soon.
Vine maple
Tree Species Quiz: Learn to iden4fy
common and interes4ng trees (15%)

• Details and photos of ~25 tree species found

locally on Canvas
• Map of where to find specimens of most of
these trees on campus
• Most species will be introduced in lectures as
“tree of the day”
• A short Canvas quiz in November will test your
ability to identify species from photos or other
information
Cones of whitebark pine (Pinus
albicaulis), an endangered tree
species in BC.
Midterm (25%) and final exam (40%)

To get a good grade:

• Attend or watch all lectures, answer questions in
class or while watching
• Take notes during lectures
• Complete weekly quizzes as they will have questions
similar in format and scope to those on exams
• Ask for help when you don’t understand something
• Exams will be on Canvas: multiple choice and similar
formats, with a few questions requiring a written
answer
• Study materials and question banks from past years
of this course are unlikely to be helpful as format and
content is entirely new
Bigleaf maple on Quadra Island
 A little about me (she/her)
• Forest gene1cist studying how trees adapt to climate
and climate change
• Tree enthusiast involved with the BC Big Tree Registry
and with forest policy in BC
• Runner, hiker, skier, gardener, reader
• Long-1me Vancouverite now based on Quadra Island, BC
• I completed my PhD at the University of California,
Berkeley a million years ago, and have been a professor
at UBC since before you were born
• You can call me either Dr. Aitken or Sally.
 Teaching team:
Emails and office hours on Canvas

Jeff Chang, Senior TA Sandhyarani Siddamsetty, Richita Goli, Valerie Russell,

Graduate TA Graduate TA Graduate TA

Email Jeff and/or Sally from the Canvas Email from Canvas or attend office hours with Graduate
page with any course-related questions TAs for help with the photo essay assignment, tree ID, or
to do with exams, illness, etc. course content
What mo?vated you to
take this course?

A. I’m a tree enthusiast!

B. I’d like to learn more about trees and forests
C. I know forestry is an important industry in BC
and would like to learn more about it
D. It’s the only course that fit my schedule or that
I could take asynchronously
E. I heard it was easy
Tree of the day: Western redcedar (Thuja plicata)
Tree of the day:
Western redcedar (Thuja plicata)

• We call it ”cedar” but it’s not a real

cedar, it’s a cypress!
• Reaches the largest diameter of any
tree species in BC
• Trees can be well over 1,000 years old
• Wood is rot resistant due to naturally
occurring compounds called terpenes

Cones and foliage of western redcedar

https://www.conifers.org/cu/Thuja_plicata.php
The Tree of Life for some
BC First Nations

Logs used for making canoes Bark stripped for weaving Wood used for carving
hats, baskets and ropes and building
https://www.comoxvalleyschools.ca/indigenous-
education/cedar-tree-of-life/ h7ps://www.haidatourism.ca/news/the-trees-of-haidagwaii
What is a tree? (Zoom poll)
A tree is a woody perennial plant with a
single stem and lateral branches,
reaching a considerable height.

Young tree
Tree

Shrubs (salal)
Remarkable trees: Largest diameter

Circumference of over 42 m! El Tule, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico

hqps://lavivienda.com.mx/el-tule-oaxaca-
the-oldest-tree/
 Remarkable trees:
General Sherman, a giant
Sequoia in California, has
the largest volume of any
tree in the world

El Tule, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-19/general- https://lavivienda.com.mx/el-tule-oaxaca-
sherman-is-still-ok-sequoia-national-park-fire the-oldest-tree/
Remarkable trees:
Hyperion is the
tallest tree in the world
116 m

Hyperion, coast redwood, California

hqps://educa4on.na4onalgeographic.org/res
ource/tall-trees/
Sacred trees

One of Japan’s sacred Shinto trees

hqps://ies.bio/world/the-phenomenality-of-
sacred-shinto-trees/
Sacred trees

Banyan tree in India

BC’s Old Growth Forests
are incredible, and rare
Some major questions in
forest biology

• How have trees evolved to be so diverse and

abundant in so many environments across
earth?
• How are trees able to survive in one place, live
for so long, and achieve such enormous sizes in
these different environments?
• Can tree species adapt to climate change?
Why are trees and forests important to
humans?
• Zoom poll
• Forests cover ~31% of
the earth’s land surface

• Contain ~60,000 tree

species

• Forests and the species

they contain make up
75-80% of all terrestrial
biomass

• Provide habitat for 70-

80% of birds, mammals
and amphibians
Canada has 9% of the earth’s
forests, and diverse forest regions
 Forests provide habitat for
biodiversity

https://www.vitalground.org/ h3ps://hc5.ca/ h3ps://www.allaboutbirds.org/

Grizzly bears Mountain caribou Pileated woodpecker

Production and manufacturing of wood is
important to BC’s economy

Logs and milled lumber; Harrop-Proctor Community Forest

Wood is a sustainable
building material

Brock Commons Tallwood House Forest Sciences Centre

Forest product exports contribute ~$35 billion
to Canada’s economy annually
Audain Art Museum, Whistler
Brienz, Switzerland
 Forest products: not just wood

Microcrystalline cellulose can be purified

from wood and other plant material for
many uses
Have you had your wood today?
Cellulose from wood is a common food additive

hqps://www.rayonier.com/stories/why-is-wood-in-so-many-foods/
Maple syrup
Trees are our best carbon
capture devices
Forests have many posi4ve effects
on human health
Urban trees and forests make cities
more livable and sustainable

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2018/12/14/benefits-urban-trees
Thermal images taken in a January
2017 heatwave show the impact of
urban heat islands in Melbourne.
Taken by an Elizabeth Street heat
camera opposite Queen Victoria
Market. Photograph: City of
Melbourne

Theguardian.com 20 Feb. 2017

Expecta4ons for students and
teaching team
Students:
• Engage ac(vely in lectures and lecture material (trees and forests
are awesome!!)
• Uphold academic honesty and integrity principles, and do your
own work
• Contact teaching team through emails on Canvas or office hours
and be pa(ent wai(ng for a response
• Treat the teaching team and fellow students with respect
Teaching team:
• Set quizzes, exams and assignments fairly
• Grade fairly
Atlasobscura.com
• Respond to student queries in a (mely manner
• Treat students with respect
From this lecture, you should know:

• The structure and grading of this course

• Expectations of students and of the
teaching team
• How to identify western redcedar trees
• What is a tree?
• How large can trees be?
• Why are trees and forests important to
humans and to biodiversity?

Walbran Castle Giant western redcedar; TJ Watt photo

Take a 5 minute break, and then we’ll
have a Q and A session about course
structure and today’s lecture content