UNBC’s Department of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences

💦 Last Saturday’s QRRC Open House went very well! Our colleague Dr. Phil Owens shares that 50+ people attended, with about 30 of those being community members including Xatsull First Nation and Williams Lake Indian Band members.

#QRRC #rivers #salmon #hydrology #researchmatters #UNBCInTheField

✅ NEW Publication - Congratulations to MSc NRES graduate Stephanie Chan who worked with Dr. Tristan Pearce during her graduate studies

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Congratulations Stephanie on this achievement!

FRIDAY - The NRESi Colloquium Series picks up again this Friday with geographer Dr. Neil Nunn

Join us in Rm 8-166 on Friday at 3:30pm to learn more about Dr. Nunn’s research.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Click here to join the Webcast:
www.unbc.ca/nres-institu...

Join us in welcoming our next speaker, Dr. Crystal Fraser, on October 3rd.
Her talk is titled "By Strength, We Are Still Here: Truth, Reconciliation, and the Path Forward"
You can join via teams webinar.
ID: 211 526 552 481 9
Passcode: ZS7FB3Hu

Missed #FieldworkFriday - here’s a catch up post from the recent field work of BSc Geography student Siobhan Striegler Klassen (supervisor Dr. Adam Hawkins)

For Siobhan’s BSc Geography Honours thesis, she is exploring the connection of the Tŝilhqot’in people with Tŝilhqox (the Chilcotin River).

✅ MA NRES graduate Jessica Froese is in Brandon, Manitoba this week to present her recently completed Master’s research at the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Conference.

RURAL YOUTH MIGRATION PLANNING: THE COMPLEX STORY IN TUMBLER RIDGE, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Supervisor: Dr. Greg Halseth

ℹ️ NEW publication co-authored by our colleague Dr. Faran Ali, GEES Senior Lab Instructor, and Engineering colleagues (led by Dr. Guowei Li, Valedictorian, May 2025)

Local scour around submerged spur dikes under ice-covered conditions: experimental and numerical investigation
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

Working with local communities is a vital part of wildfire response The challenge is not firefighting capacity nor convincing people to help; it is coordinating efforts to prioritize safety and efficiency.

🔥NEW PUBLICATION co-authored by MA NRES Geography grad James Whitehead for The Conversation (supervisor: Dr. Tristan Pearce)

#GEESInTheNews #UNBCInTheField #wildfires #community #communityresilience #firefighting #NorthernBC

theconversation.com/working-with...

➡️ GEES’s Senior Research Scientist Dr. Raquel Portes & ESM’s Dr. Diogo Spinola are exploring how fire transforms forest soils in northern BC.

#GEESInTheNews #UNBCInTheField #wildfires #soils #physicalgeography

www.coastreporter.net/bc-news/bc-s...

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS to our awesome colleague Dr. Tristan Pearce on his recent promotion to Full Professor of Geography!

Many of us enjoyed celebrating this major academic achievement with Tristan during today’s event organised by the UNBC Office of the Provost.

NEW publication, co-authors include GEES Instructor Laura Ryser (Murphy), Dr. Greg Halseth & GEES Adjunct Professor Dr. Sean Markey

doi.org/10.1080/1557...

#Canada #communitydevelopment #RuralCanada

NEW publication co-authored by Alexandre Bevington & Dr. Brian Menounos

Bevington, A.R., Menounos, B., and Ednie, M. 2025. Satellite telemetry of surface ablation observations to inform spatial melt modelling, Place Glacier, British Columbia, Canada, EGUsphere [preprint], doi.org/10.5194/egus...

🇦🇹 Mackenzie Ostberg (GEES Research Associate) is in Innsbruck, Austria this week to present her recently completed Master’s research at the International Mountain Conference. #IMC

Presentation Title: Community Vulnerability to Mountain Snowpack Change

Supervisor: Dr. Tristan Pearce

imc2025.info

📣 The Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP) call for funding applications for undergraduate & graduate students

To apply, please go to: nstp-pfsn.smapply.io  
 
Deadline Tuesday November 10th, 2025
  
Dr. Stephen Déry, Chair, UNBC NSTP Committee (Email: Stephen.Dery@unbc.ca).

FRIDAY - @unbc-nresi.bsky.social Colloquium with Dr. Jasmine Janes:

Date: Friday, September 19, 2025 – 3:30pm-4:30pm
Location: Room 8-166 and Online

Link to the colloquium webcast: www2.unbc.ca/nres-institu...

📣 FRIDAY - The UNBC NRESi Colloquium Series kicks off this Friday with Dr. Tristan Pearce!

Join us in Rm 8-166 on Friday at 3:30pm to learn more about Dr. Pearce’s research.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Click here to join the Webcast:
www.unbc.ca/nres-institu...

We are pleased to welcome recent GEES MNRES graduate Halena Scanlon as a Research Associate.

Halena is working on the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada funded project, “Inuvialuit Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida)” & other Arctic-related projects.

We are pleased to welcome Mackenzie Ostberg, a recent GEES MA graduate, to the department as a Research Associate with Dr. Tristan Pearce.

Mackenzie is working on the SSHRC-funded project “Indigenous Peoples Observatory Network” (IPON).

More info here: www.envchange.com/members

It’s September 3, we are 10+ days into record breaking temperatures with zero precipitation, and would probably hit the forecast record high of 31C except we are smothered in #wildfire smoke. #climatechange

The Tsilhqot'in Nation put out a press release this week warning that chinook salmon are still at risk from the 2024 Tsilhqox landslide.

(Forgot the information posters. Le sigh…)

Two fourth-year courses I'm excited to teach this fall @unbcgeographyensc.bsky.social: Mountains and Advanced Geospatial Analysis! Both are cross-listed so graduate students can take them as well to meet their degree requirements!

🏔️⛰️🛰️🛰️

#geospatial #mountains #highered

Convincing the undergraduate research assistant that fieldwork is FUN 🦟🦟🦟

Comparison of snowmelt timing estimates from Sentinel-1 SAR and surface observations in British Columbia, Canada Snowmelt provides critical water resources that impact ecosystem health and hazard frequency; however, the timing of melt is difficult to infer across…

Happy publication day! @moshlab.bsky.social PhD candidate SARa Darychuk led this detailed study on snow melt timing from surface and spaceborne SAR!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Berg Glacier and Yexyexéscen (Mount Robson) behind Berg Lake

Joe and Madison selfie in front of Berg Lake

Berg Glacier and Yexyexéscen (Mount Robson) on a blue sky day

Emperor Falls, Mount Robson Provincial Park

It’s rare to see Yexyexéscen (Mount Robson) without any clouds. Rarer still to see it like this from the north side while scouting a location for a new snow observatory! ❄️🥼

Celebrated the talk (and my coincident birthday) with Ethiopian food and a pint at my namesake bar in Saskatoon.

Standing with Nicole Boyde, the top graduating Geography student.

Joe taking a selfie with Mackenzie Ostberg and Tristan Pearce

Joe, Mackenzie, and Tristan

Honorary doctorate recipient Dr. Shirley Bond, with president Dr. Geoff Payne, and Chancellor Darlene McIntosh

Huge congratulations to all of the graduates yesterday at UNBC’s 2025 convocation. Always a great day, and an important occasion to celebrate.

🎉UNBC Convocation 2025🎉

Congratulations to all. What a fantastic day!

We recognized two students in particular:

Kaylee Barnes is our Top Graduating student in Environmental Science

and

Nicole Boyd is our Top Graduating student in Geography

Well done, everyone ✅

Welcome!

I am honoured (and slightly nervous, TBH) to be giving the plenary opening lecture at this year's @cgu-ugc.bsky.social / @cmos-scmo.bsky.social joint symposium in Saskatoon! At 09:00 Monday I'll be talking about the importance of #EDI in 2025 and sharing insights from the Hidden Figures project.