Symbios Research and Restoration

Latest Update

July 5-10, 2021: Carla teaching an intensive version of BIOL 350, Ethnobotany, at the Terrace Campus of UNBC.

 

June-Oct. 2021: Phil collaborating with other researchers at UNBC and at the Bulkley Valley Research Centre (bvcentre.ca) to understand what did and did not burn in some of the large B.C. wildfires of 2017 and 2018. Are some forest stand types or stand ages more resistant to wildfire than others?

 

March-June 2021: Prepared revegetation guidelines for the Coghlin Park viewpoint in Kitimat, B.C., and  recommended native plant species for landscaping at the new Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace, B.C.

 

2020: Mostly staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Be kind, be calm, and be safe, everyone!

 

Aug- Sept. 2019: Completed a second summer of sampling vegetation of the Nisga'a Lava Beds in the Nass Valley, 80 km north of Terrace, B.C. An amazing landscape stemming from a volcanic eruption about 250 years ago, which few Canadians know about. Thanks to Curtis Björk at Enlichened Consulting Ltd. (https://www.waysofenlichenment.net/portal/) for his collaboration in finding and identifying some 727 plant taxa growing on the lava beds! Ecosystems here do not reflect a simple story of primary succession, but rather tend to be set back by recurrent wildfires, or facilitated by the sediment deposited from occassional flooding. Substrate differences and proximity to roads and undisturbed forest edges are also important.

 

June 2019: Presented papers on incorporating sustainability of traditionally used medicinal plants into forest management, and on anomalies in wildfire behaviour, at the North American Forest Ecology Workshop (NAFEW), June 23-27, 2019, Flagstaff, Arizona.

 

September 2018. Led a workshop on traditional plant use and medicinal salves for the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society in Prince George, B.C.