Forestry literature often suggests that the scope of forestry and forest research has changed though there is limited empirical evidence to support this hypothesis. We used a bibliometric approach to quantify changes in word frequency in titles of documents in the Web of Science category forestry. Single words and word pairs (bigrams) were extracted from a total of 150,679 documents across 651 sources that spanned between 1956 - 2019. We identified increasing and decreasing trends in word frequency, identified influential documents, and examined country of origin. The number of documents published in forestry research has increased annually, with the United States, Canada and China producing the highest quantities. The most influential documents in the dataset involved methodology, stand development and climate change. Word frequencies revealed a shift in research away from sustained yield-based forestry and towards a more interdisciplinary view of forests as ecologically important, dynamic systems. We argue that changes in research trends reflect a broader paradigm shift toward sustainable forest management.
Applied educational opportunities in forestry undergraduate curricula are essential for a complete postsecondary degree program. Walking distance to local urban forests present a way to teach forestry students in applied settings, while reducing the time, cost, and travel logistics. A case study at a Canadian university (University of British Columbia) was used to connect urban forest canopy cover to forestry learning objectives and walking time to the main teaching building. Individual tree canopies were identified with light detection and ranging data and aggregated to 0.05 ha grid sections. Using canopy cover and forest arrangement, the urban forest was classified into closed, open, small, sparse, or non- forest classifications. Forestry learning objectives were matched with each forest classification in conjunction with walkability to identify critical local location for forestry education. Results identified key areas suitable for teaching forestry and for linking forestry educational values with easily accessible high value locations. Study Implications: Applied educational opportunities for undergraduate forestry students are critical for ensuring hands-on, real world experiences and essential in postsecondary forestry degrees. Local urban forests present an opportunity to allow students access to these experiences regularly. Connecting forestry learning objectives with local urban forest types allowed for the identification of key, high-value learning locations. The information and methodology from this research provide insight into explicitly classifying areas for forestry educational purposes with the goal of promoting outdoor applied educational opportunities for forestry undergraduate students.
The advancement and accessibility of high-resolution remotely sensed data has made it feasible to detect tree canopy cover (TCC) changes over small spatial scales. However, the short history of these high-resolution collection techniques presents challenges when assessing canopy changes over longer time scales (> 50 years). This research shows how using high-resolution LiDAR data in conjunction with historical aerial photos can overcome this limitation. We used the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey campus in Vancouver, Canada, as a case study, using both historical aerial photographs from 1949 and 2015 LiDAR data. TCC was summed in 0.05 ha analysis polygons for both the LiDAR and aerial photo data, allowing for TCC comparison across the two different data types. Methods were validated using 2015 aerial photos, the means (Δ 0.24) and a TOST test indicated that the methods were statistically equivalent (±5.38% TCC). This research concludes the methods outlined is suitable for small scale TCC change detection over long time frames when inconsistent data types are available between the two time periods.
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