These teaching kits and resources were developed for School District 57 learners to engage with their local environment, history, and industry. These resources pertain to the Aleza Lake Research Forest, a 9000 ha outdoor research facility and working forest 60 km east of Prince George. The Northern BC Archives contains the archives of the long history of the Aleza Lake Research Forest. Created and established in the early 20th century, the facility, then known as the Aleza Lake Experiment Station, was opened in 1924. The objectives of the Experiment Station were related to forest management, particularly growth and mortality of white spruce and balsam, soils, and spatial planning. Now, the mandate of the Aleza Lake Research Forest is to provide research and education facilities and opportunities to the University of Northern BC and other institutes, universities, government agencies, private sector research, schools and other educational groups with regards to ecosystem and resource management studies within the wet sub-boreal spruce biogeoclimatic zone. The research and education programs are multidisciplinary with an emphasis on:
The Aleza Lake Research Forest provides a location for field research and education, and also facilitates the development, implementation and evaluation of research and education programs with the user groups. To find out more about the current activities of the Aleza Lake Research Forest please visit their website at alrf.unbc.ca. To find out more about the history of the Aleza Lake Research Forest please see the Aleza Lake Research Forest fonds (2007.1) and the Aleza Lake Research Forest Society fonds (2006.18) in the Northern BC Archives' database.
These teaching kits were created by Melanie Bellwood and adapted for this online format by the Northern BC Archives.
Please provide your feedback to the Northern BC Archives via our email archives@unbc.ca.
These activities have been developed for educational use by the Aleza Lake Research Forest Society in conjunction with the Northern B.C. Archives.
Thank you to all the administrators and teachers from School District 97, the Council of Forest Industries, and the University of Northern British Columbia for their invaluable assistance in the development of this resource.