Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto
The Faculty of Forestry is located in the Earth Sciences Centre on the St. George campus of the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada.
History
The Faculty was established in 1907; it is the oldest forestry faculty in Canada and the second oldest in North America after Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Both schools were founded by Bernhard Fernow, second Chief Forester of the United States and considered one of the fathers of the North American forestry profession.
In 2007 the Faculty celebrated its centennial. In commemoration of this event, environmental historian Mark Kuhlberg wrote a scholarly history of the Faculty. Entitled: One Hundred Rings and Counting: Forestry Education and Forestry in Toronto and Canada, 1907-2007, the book is scheduled to be released in September 2009 by the University of Toronto Press.
Teaching
The Faculty of Forestry currently employs 13 full time teaching faculty and has 50 adjunct professors from a variety of institutions. For the first decades of the Faculty's existence, the focus was on the instruction of foresters through undergraduate level teaching. In recent years, however, the focus has been on training graduate students. The undergraduate program in forestry (B.Sc.F.) was closed in 1996; however, starting in 2000 new undergraduate B.A. and B.Sc. degrees in Forest Conservation and Biomaterial Science have been offered in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to the undergraduate programs, the Faculty offers degree programs leading to the Master of Forest Conservation (M.F.C.), the Master of Science in Forestry (M.Sc.F.) and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and participates in collaborative graduate programs in Environmental Studies and Environmental Toxicology. To date, over 2,000 B.Sc.F., 300 M.Sc.F., 100 MFC and 50 Ph.D. degrees have been awarded from the Faculty of Forestry.
Forest Insect Ecology and Management
Beginning in 2009, students enrolled in the third-year undergraduate course Forest Insect Ecology and Management (FOR 307) were required to create Bugwood wiki pages for a number of forest insect pests. These pages were compiled using a variety of research sources.
Research
Staff and students at the Faculty carry out research in: forest conservation biology; forest biosphere science; invasive species and threats to forest health; environmental sustainability of managed forests; fire and ecosystem management; forest conservation planning; sustainable development and economics; political ecology and governance of forest ecosystems; social and cultural ecology of forest ecosystems; urban forestry (conservation of forests in settled landscapes); and, forest biomaterials science and engineering. Researchers carry out field work in a number of locations across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Forest ecologists in the Faculty maintain close ties with Haliburton forest, a 25,000 hectare privately-owned forest in North-central Ontario.
Links
Description of One hundred rings and counting at University of Toronto Press
