Through their capstone project, each MUFL student
explores an area of interest within urban forestry,
which may also intersect with their professional
endeavors. This experience cultivates their ability to
critically evaluate existing and current research in
the field and contribute to the knowledge base with
the support and guidance of mentors and experts.
For her capstone project, Ginny Hang studied the chal-
lenges a warming climate poses to the huge, iconic
395 western redcedars (Thuja plicata) in the David C.
Lam Asian Garden of the University of British Columbia
Botanical Garden. Along with Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga
menziesii) and grand firs (Abies grandis), the western
redcedars support the popular aerial Greenheart
Tree Walk that gives visitors a unique immersion in
Vancouver's coastal temperate rainforest. Through
her research, Hang identified management and mon-
itoring techniques and selective seed provenance
from more southerly locales as possible avenues of
mitigation for the western redcedar collection.
Ryan Senechal explored Urban Forestry Ambitions
and Labour Force Limitations in his capstone project.
He asked, "Do community expectations for the
improvement of urban forests align with the availability
of educated, experienced and qualified arborists?"
Through in-depth interviews with arborists practicing
in municipal urban forestry maintenance programs,
Senechal found recurrent themes of concern around
worker safety, physical workload, career growth oppor-
tunity, access and cost barriers to education, training
and qualifications, wages, housing affordability, and per-
ceptions of workplace inclusion. He found that an array
of workplace cultural conditions together manifests in
high levels of turnover in existing arborist employees
and recruiting difficulties for urban forestry employers.
"A concerted effort to improve the collective condi-
tions that arborists experience is necessary to meet the
human resources capacity needs required to support
urban forest enhancement," Senechal concludes.
Other capstone project topics have included Comparing
Tree Bylaws and Urban Green Management Policies
between Canadian Cities; How a Community's Openness
to Urban Agroforestry in a Riparian Area Aligns with
Municipal Urban Forestry and Biodiversity Strategies;
and Community Engagement Toolkits for Urban Forest
Governance in Australia and New Zealand.
MUFL group enjoying dinner together in Italy. Photo by Cheryl Ngg
24 CityTREES
