Scattered across UBC’s Vancouver campus is a vast urban forest, offering shade, absorbing carbon, supporting and contributing to campus biodiversity, and shaping the identity of the university’s landscape. And recently, students had limited scholarly engagement with the campus’ trees.
The Student Tree Inventory Project, a collaboration between UBC Campus and Community Planning, the SEEDS Sustainability Program, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship Tahia Devisscher, student researchers and UBC Municipal Services, is changing that. By systematically mapping trees on the academic campus, the initiative is creating a living database—one that will help to inform future urban forest management at UBC. The project collects detailed data of campus trees using a standardized methodology that ensures consistency across data collection phases every year with new student cohorts. By tracking urban tree canopy cover loss and gain over time, the inventory provides essential insights into how UBC’s urban forest is changing.
For Emma Luker, Engagement and Sustainability Planner with Campus + Community Planning, who helped conceptualize the multi-year project, this work is about more than just data collection—it’s also about building a long-term framework for student engagement. "This project started in 2018 to address data gaps in a campus urban forest inventory," says Luker. "While we had some tree assessments from earlier years, we needed a systematic, campus-wide approach to tree data collection. Engaging students in the process made it possible to expand our efforts while also turning it into a research opportunity."
Beyond cataloging species and locations, the project also explores how trees shape campus life. A social value mapping component, co-developed with students, revealed that over multiple years, people consistently valued green spaces for beauty, recreation, and well-being. "It was interesting to see how students engaged with this project in terms of defining what makes trees valuable to the community," Luker reflects. "Over time, this inventory will help identify trees of significance, track changes to urban forest canopy cover, and pilot new approaches to urban forest data management."
With the help of applied research partners, student researchers, and the SEEDS Sustainability Program, future efforts will focus on monitoring tree loss and gain, expanding biodiversity mapping, and integrating birds, pollinators, and ecological connectivity into a larger monitoring research framework.
Did You Know?
- Students of UFOR 220 led by Dr. Tahia Devisscher play a key role in data collection. Their work has been shown to produce results comparable to consultant-led efforts.
- The data is shaping future research and supporting informed decision-making. The inventory is being used to train LiDAR-based species identification technology, improving ecological assessments.
Photo credits: UBC Media Relations, Angela Rout, Phillipe Roberge.