Having had Roy as a teacher during my undergrad at UNBC, I knew what kind of presenter he was and was excited to hear him present again after about 5 years. He did not disappoint with a presentation full of enthusiasm, humor, and a wealth of moose related knowledge. As Roy mentioned several times throughout his presentation, moose are a very important indicator species as “what’s good for moose, is good for biodiversity”. Unfortunately, with a 70% decline in moose populations in certain areas in B.C., including around Prince George, it is very important that this decline be looked at seriously and that efforts are made to stop it. It is people that are as passionate about this issue as Roy who are needed to reverse the decline.

While I did have some basic moose knowledge prior to Roy’s talk, there was a lot more knowledge that I gained about moose in British Columbia. One of the biggest things I learned is that when it comes to important moose habitat, complexity is key. Moose are edge species who prefer a mix of hardwoods and softwoods of different ages, as well as a mix of burned and un-burned forests. This can be summed up in one quote by former UNBC graduate student Matt Scheideman who told Roy “Moose are found in heterogenous environments” when Roy asked him to summarize his results in one sentence. Furthermore, Roy made it clear the importance of subalpine fir as a part of a moose’s winter diet, composing ~45% of it. Unfortunately, protection subalpine fir is not a management objective by foresters. The other thing that doesn’t appear to be a priority for foresters is the retention of trees in cutblocks, which Roy mentions is key for moose habitat. While Roy presented pretty substantial evidence of the importance of retention, smaller cut blocks to create more edge habitat, and protection of both hardwoods and softwoods, it seems as though not much has changed in the forest practices in B.C. to give these management objectives more priority.

As mentioned, Roy brought a lot of enthusiasm, humor, and knowledge to his presentation which was fantastic. However, I think the thing that stood out to me most was how easy it was to follow along with his presentation. He didn’t fill it with complicated terms or show any complicated results, but instead got right to the point and made things clear enough that even those with little knowledge on moose or forestry could easily follow along. I wouldn’t say there were any aspects of Roy’s research that could really be applied to my own, however I will definitely be taking some tips from his presentation skills.

I feel like it was hard for Roy to answer questions as lot’s of people more so made comments rather than questions. That being said, the actual questions he received he either answered to the best of his knowledge, or was up front and admitted he didn’t know the answer, which I think is more respectable than pretending to know the answer and giving false information. Overall, I thought it was a fantastic presentation!