When seasons change and plants lose their leaves, it may seem like a dull and sleepy time of year— but there is much to observe and get excited about outdoors! In fact, there are some plant traits that you can only clearly observe in winter. Wintertime is a great season to build your plant identification skills and hone your observational abilities. Join the online lecture via Zoom where you will learn the basics of winter plant identification, including key traits and terms. Expand your identification skills in the second part of the class during an outdoor walk around the forest, where we will stop and observe the interesting features of various shrubs & trees. Please bring a magnifying glass or hand lens if you have one.
Participants can choose to participate in the online session only, or both the online and field sessions.
Meet the Facilitator
Julia Alards-Tomalin is an instructor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, Canada. She studied Forestry and Ecological Restoration at BCIT and completed a Master of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her background is diverse, including horticulture, arboriculture, invasive species management and ecological restoration, but is united by a common theme of plants.
Starting in 2019, Julia began to work with her students to create an Open Education textbook focusing on the winter identification of plants entitled Buds, Branches and Bark: A Guide to Winter ID in the Pacific Northwest. Buds, Branches and Bark is free to download, and the 3rd edition is currently available on the BCIT Website. In 2022, Julia was awarded the Teaching Excellence in Open Education Employee Excellence Award at BCIT for her involvement in this Open Education Resource. In 2023, the 2nd edition of Buds, Branches and Bark was awarded the Open Education Global Award for Excellence in the Open Pedagogy category and the BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education.
