Margaret North was an instructor in the UBC Department of Geography and later a Senior Instructor Emeritus. She received her BSc from London University and her MA from the University of Kansas in 1961. Her area of focus was biogeography, and her research interests focus on vegetation change along the Peace River. North also served as the committee chair for the UBC Technical Committee on the Pacific Spirit Regional Park. She was involved in two events regarding the development of the Point Grey campus: the erosion plans for the Point Grey Cliffs proposed in the late 1970s and the issues surrounding construction in the UBC arboretum in the early 1990s. In 1979, proposals by Swan Wooster engineering company to deal with the erosion of Wreck beach cliffs met with some contention. Geology students constructed alternate proposals and critiques of the project as part of a class project for presentation. In 1991, plans for the First Nations Longhouse to be built in the arboretum led to protest over removing several specimens of trees. Petitions and signs were created to draw attention to the issue. As a result, plans were changed to remove fewer trees, several trees were replanted, and two were reprieved.