If you are planning prescribed burns, implementing treatments, writing prescriptions, evaluating wildfire impacts or reporting on ecological outcomes, this workshop will help you connect monitoring to decision making.
Monitoring should answer practical questions:
Did the treatment reduce surface fuels as intended?
Did it create the habitat conditions we were targeting?
Were important values protected?
Is the ecosystem moving toward the desired future condition?
What should we do right away or change before the next treatment?
This workshop focuses on designing monitoring programs that connect resource objectives, burn objectives, fire effects and ecological response. Participants learn how to select meaningful monitoring variables, choose appropriate methods, interpret results and use monitoring to improve future management actions.
The workshop explores first order fire effects such as fuel consumption, crown scorch, soil heating and burn severity. It also examines second order effects, including delayed mortality, vegetation recovery, invasive species response, wildlife habitat development, hydrologic change and future fuel conditions. Participants learn how fire behaviour, fuels, weather and site conditions interact to shape ecological outcomes.
Whether your work involves prescribed fire, wildfire risk reduction, ecosystem restoration, cultural burning, forestry, range management, parks, wildlife habitat or community wildfire resilience, this workshop provides practical tools for evaluating treatment effectiveness and supporting adaptive management.
Who This Workshop Is For
This workshop is designed for practitioners involved in planning, implementing, monitoring or evaluating fire and fire treatments. Past participants have included staff from BC Wildfire Service, the Ministry of Forests, First Nations, municipal governments, consulting, community forests, fire departments, academic institutions, parks agencies and ecosystem restoration programs.
What You Will Walk Away With
By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:
Develop a practical monitoring plan using your own project or a provided workshop scenario (individual or team effort)
Connect monitoring questions and objectives to resource objectives, burn objectives and desired fire effects
Select rapid assessment, detailed monitoring or research grade approaches appropriate to the project
Select monitoring levels, variables and methods that answer meaningful management questions
Establish monitoring plots and collect repeatable, defensible field data
Apply the Composite Burn Index and Fire Monitoring Handbook approaches to assessing burn severity
Evaluate first order and second order fire effects across surface fuels, vegetation, soils, wildlife habitat, hydrology, riparian areas and cultural values
Determine whether treatment objectives were achieved
Interpret fire effects in the context of fire behaviour, fuels, weather and site conditions
Incorporate fire effects monitoring into existing vegetation, silviculture, wildlife, fuels and restoration monitoring programs
Use monitoring results to improve future treatments and support adaptive management
Each participant or group will leave with a working monitoring plan developed throughout the three days.
Included Resources
Participants receive:
A comprehensive workshop manual
Monitoring plan templates and field forms
Rapid assessment and detailed monitoring protocols
Fire effects and burn severity interpretation tools
Example monitoring plans and reporting formats
Ongoing access to workshop resources and data collection tools
What Makes This Workshop Different
This is not a generic monitoring course, and it is not the S-244 Field Observer and Fire Effects Monitor course.
The workshop focuses on the connection between resource objectives, fire behaviour, fire effects, ecological response and future management decisions. Participants learn how to design monitoring that answers management questions rather than simply collecting data. The emphasis is practical and operational. Monitoring is treated as part of the treatment process, helping practitioners determine whether fire and fire treatments are achieving ecological, cultural and hazard reduction outcomes.
Course Format
The workshop combines classroom instruction with extensive field practice over three days. Participants may bring a current or upcoming project or work with one of the scenarios provided.
The field sites are shared practice sites. Participants use these sites to practise methods, compare approaches and develop professional judgement. They then apply what they learn to the monitoring plan for their own project or selected workshop scenario.
Day 1: Monitoring Foundations and Rapid Assessment
The first morning introduces the purpose of monitoring, first order and second order fire effects, monitoring questions, objectives and variables. During the afternoon field session, participants practice rapid fire effects assessment and the Composite Burn Index. They compare observations among assessors and consider what these methods capture well, what they may miss and how they could be applied to their selected project.
Day 2: Detailed Monitoring Plots
Following two hours of classroom preparation, participants spend the remainder of the day in the field establishing and measuring detailed monitoring plots. The field session covers plot setup, surface fuels, litter and duff, vegetation, tree condition, repeat photography and other measurements selected to answer specific monitoring questions. Participants evaluate the feasibility, repeatability and usefulness of different methods before refining their own monitoring plans.
Day 3: Post-Fire Effects and Monitoring Plans
The third day begins at a post-fire site. Participants examine burn severity, fuel consumption, vegetation effects, tree response, substrate effects and other evidence of immediate ecological change. The field discussion connects observed effects to fire behaviour, fuels, weather, ignition and site conditions. Participants also consider delayed responses and determine what can be concluded immediately and what requires later monitoring.
During the afternoon, participants complete their monitoring plans and present them for discussion and feedback.
Instructor and Guest Speakers
Colleen Ross, RPF, BIT, AFE Certified Wildland Fire Ecologist
Colleen has nearly three decades of experience in wildland fire and resource management including working on fire effects monitoring crews. She is a certified Fire Effects Monitor, Fire Behaviour Analyst, and Type 1 Burn Boss. Her work focuses on helping organizations and communities design and implement practical, defensible burn programs that support both ecological and hazard reduction objectives.
Past Guest: Jaci Gilbert, FNESS Cultural and Prescribed Fire Specialist
Jaci presented on the fire effects monitoring components of the Worksheets to Create a Cultural Burn Pathway.
Past Guest: Sasha Nasonova, Remote Sensing Specialist, Ministry of Forests
Sasha presented on remote sensing applications for fire monitoring, including burn severity mapping, dNBR, the strengths and limitations of satellite products and the importance of field validation using approaches such as the Composite Burn Index.
Course Details
Professional Development: 24 CPD hours plus pre-course preparation
Registration Limit: 21 participants
Course Fee: $750 CAD
A Note for Employers
Participants leave with a working monitoring plan and practical tools that can be applied immediately to prescribed fire, wildfire recovery, ecosystem restoration, fuels management and community wildfire resilience projects. The workshop supports defensible monitoring, objective based reporting, adaptive management and the continued improvement of fire and treatment effectiveness.
2026 Participant Feedback
Participant feedback helped shape the 2027 content, exercises, field activities, and resources. Fire effects and treatment monitoring can look very different depending on the ecosystem, treatment objectives, values, and questions being asked. The diversity of experience in the room added considerably to the learning and reinforced that there is no single monitoring approach that fits every project.
Overall, participants described the workshop as:
Practical, engaging, and applicable to their work.
A strong balance of classroom learning and field application.
Enhanced by guest speakers, different perspectives, and local knowledge.
A valuable opportunity to learn alongside practitioners from different backgrounds and build professional networks.
Well structured, with accessible field sites and practical exercises.
Useful for understanding the range of tools and approaches available for monitoring fire effects and treatment outcomes.
Feedback that helped improved the content in 2027 included more pre- and post-burn visual examples across different fuel types, more plot-design diagrams and examples of completed field forms, more time interpreting fire effects in the field, and opportunities for participants to apply monitoring concepts to their own projects.
The goal is not to teach one monitoring protocol, but to give practitioners the tools to ask good questions, select methods that fit those questions, and use what they learn to improve the next treatment or burn.