Hello! My name is John Innes (you can call me John) and I am your instructor for this course.
I am currently the Dean of Forestry in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. I got here via a circuitous route that involved doing undergraduate and PhD degrees at the University of Cambridge in the UK, working for a while at what was then University College Cardiff in Wales, followed by a short stint at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, back in England. My first real job was with the UK Forestry Commission, working on forest health surveys. After seven years I moved to Switzerland to do much the same job (but a lot better paid!), before coming to UBC in 1999. At UBC, I hold a position called the FRBC Chair of Forest Management, which was set up by an organization called Forest Renewal BC. The organization no longer exists, but its legacy lives on. As part of this, an important part of my work is to promote sustainable forest management.