Assessing Tree & Forest Health
NRTG’s MicroCourses deliver practical, real-world training designed to build essential skills for natural resource professionals. Assessing Tree & Forest Health provides a hands-on introduction to recognizing, interpreting, and evaluating signs of stress, disturbance, and decline in forest ecosystems.
With climate change accelerating the frequency and intensity of forest stressors, such as pests, pathogens, extreme weather, and human activity – understanding how to assess tree and forest health is more important than ever. This course equips learners with the skills to detect common disturbance agents and understand their effects on individual trees and forest stands over time.
Learners will explore practical tools and frameworks used across jurisdictions to assess tree condition. Emphasis is placed on interpreting observable features, such as crown health, growth patterns, physical damage, and site context – understanding how these indicators inform assessment outcomes depending on regional standards and management goals.
Through interactive discussion and applied scenarios, the course also examines how health assessments guide real-world decisions in forest stewardship, habitat management, and retention planning.
This MicroCourse is ideal for technicians, biologists, foresters, and other natural resource professionals seeking practical and transferable skills for assessing tree and forest health in a variety of contexts.
It is a companion course to Introduction to Forest Composition and Structure and Understanding How Site Factors Shape Forests. Learners unfamiliar with tree identification are encouraged to complete Applied Tree Identification prior to taking this course.
Key Learning Outcomes:
- Detect common tree stressors: pests, pathogens, and environmental impacts
- Use observable indicators to evaluate tree and forest condition
- Apply practical health assessment tools used across regions and jurisdictions
- Interpret assessment results to inform stewardship and management decisions
Course will be 4 hours long.
Instructor Profile
Cara Gillis
Cara Gillis is a Registered Professional Forester in Nova Scotia with experience working in forestry across Nova Scotia and British Columbia. She has worked in silviculture, ecological forest management, and private land management, including roles with several forestry consulting firms in BC. She has also worked in wildfire prevention in Alberta and previously served as Forest Conservation Coordinator for the Atlantic Region with the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Cara has taught natural resource and forestry courses at the Nova Scotia Community College and focuses on practical, real-world approaches to forest management and education.