Ecological Restoration Students Take First Steps On-Board SFU’s New Floating Classroom

Faculty of Environment’s Ecological Restoration students had a front row seat to the unveiling of SFU’s Marine Learning Centre–a new floating classroom located at the bottom of Burnaby Mountain.

The Centre is the product of a collaboration between SFU Environment, SFU Science and the Reed Point Marine Education Centre to help students gain hands-on experience in marine ecosystems just 1,100 meters from campus.

Ecological Restoration Program Chair and Statistical Ecologist, Ruth Joy, sees this a great way for students to have their heads in the sky up on top of the mountain, and their feet in the water in the inlet. “It’s one thing to see the ocean from the land, but it’s another to see the land from the ocean,” says Joy.

While the classroom is expected to officially open its doors in the spring of 2022, Joy joined her class on a tour of the inlet to observe restoration initiatives and landscapes right in the neighbourhood of the floating classroom. Onboard the boat, students got an up-close look at how important their studies and the classroom are to understanding and protecting local ecosystems.

On the tour, students observed examples of successful and failed past restoration initiatives, and were asked to think critically about species of interest and areas of consideration for future projects.

Among the successful sites was a man-made fish pen located North of the marina. These pens protect young fish from predators and help increase survival rates of fish transferred from fresh to saltwater, allowing them to double in size in approximately two weeks before being released.

As the tour progressed, students also saw first-hand how actions of individuals can have negative impacts on ecosystems. As ocean-front home owners opt to level their yards for larger lawns and pool decks, shoreline habitats have been significantly reduced and disturbed.

The tour was led by the Education Centre’s Rod MacVicar. “You only care about what you know about. Once you spend a day working here, you’d be hesitant to do the wrong thing—like flushing toxic cleaners or dumping bleach down your sink,” says MacVicar.

With 2021 to 2030 being named the decade of ecosystems restoration by the United Nations, and the numerous restoration initiatives taking place in Metro Vancouver, this collaboration demonstrates the urgent need to protect and restore our surrounding ecosystems.