Interesting talk in the ADGIS lab today, with Will Burt, Regional Geomatics Analyst Kootenay Boundary Region, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO). He talked about the role GIS plays in forest fire management, and about the kinds of things you do, day to day, in an Incident Command Team. 

It was a nice connection to where some of these students will go - several past grads have had coop jobs at the the Southeast Fire Centre. Also it was nice to see a number of the students in this group that have come through the geomatics courses that our two year diploma students take.

Rena Vandenbos instructing a second year forestry GIS lab

We're almost at the New Year here, but there's been a lot of interesting events our SEG students have experienced over the last four months, and I though I should mention at least a few of them!

Doris Hausleitner and I took the 2nd year IEP students up to Stagleap Provincial Park to help monitor whitebark pine population health, and to look at the change in forest structure over an elevation gradient (from the Pass car park to the top of Cornice Ridge).

Cornice Ridge leads up from the right to the little peak above the van

Like last year, we hoofed it up to the top of the ridge for a view. Then we set up fixed area plots to record tree density and other measures of forest structure.

The class on the top of Cornice Ridge

Students getting to work recording forest structure data on the site

 An important part of the lab is to assess the extent of blister rust infection in the whitebark pine population. This species of pine is listed as endangered in Canada, and I've worked on it's conservation and restoration it's high elevation habitat since 1997. It's great to get students introduced to, and working on this problem every year.

Looking  at infected whitebark pine saplings