FMPs for Prescribed Fire Workshop
From Assessment to Application
Fuels Management Prescriptions (FMPs) are key to supporting prescribed fire, and they need to connect well to how fire actually behaves and how burns are implemented. This course helps bridge that gap and builds competencies for those practicing within this scope.
Over five days, you’ll learn how to write practical, defensible FMPs that align with ecological goals and operational realities, using BC’s latest provincial template. You’ll gain hands-on experience with layout that is anchored in for logical burn units, fuels, fire behavior, and monitoring, guided by someone who is an RPF, AFE Wildland Fire Ecologist and practicing certified Burn Boss (along with special guests).
This course is for professionals who want to sharpen their judgment, expand their fire knowledge, and improve how they practice in prescribed fire. The content has been thoughtfully developed after interviewing 30+ individuals directly involved with FMP and Burn Plan review, from Fire Keepers to funders, Burn Bosses to WRR Specialists.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this 5-day course, participants will be able to:
Understand the purpose and scope of a Fuels Management Prescription (FMP) within BC’s land management and wildfire mitigation context, particularly as it supports prescribed fire.
Apply field-based assessment techniques to evaluate stand structure, fuel conditions, and ecological values relevant to fuels treatment planning.
Use intermediate fire behavior knowledge to inform prescription design, including treatment layout, timing, and expected fire effects (complete the S390 course through the lens of FMPs and prescribed fire).
Design ecologically informed fuel treatments that are consistent with burn objectives and long-term ecosystem goals.
Incorporate monitoring and adaptive management principles to ensure prescriptions are defensible, measurable, and outcome-focused.
Develop a complete Fuels Management Prescription using the latest provincial template, aligned with operational feasibility, robust fire behaviour predictions and regulatory expectations.
Course Highlights
Includes S-390 Intermediate Fire Behaviour certification (see Q&A below if you have this already)
Students receive a professional-grade guidebook on completing the 2025 BC Fuel Management Prescription Template, with a fire ecology and prescribed fire lens
Hands-on training in field reconnaissance, fuel assessment, ignition strategy design, and effects monitoring
Emphasizes scope of practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ecological literacy
Aligned with FPBC competencies, BC Wildfire Service documentation, and legislative requirements
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This 5-day workshop teaches you how to write fuel management prescriptions that support effective prescribed fire. You’ll learn how to assess fuels, predict fire behaviour, integrate ecological fire effects, and develop prescriptions that align with BC’s 2025 FMP template. It’s practical, field-based, and focused on writing plans that get implemented.
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This course includes the S-390 Intermediate Fire Behaviour certification, which is required for many prescribed fire and burn boss qualifications.
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Registered Forest Professionals
FireSmart and fuel management planners
Prescribed fire practitioners and burn bosses
Indigenous land stewards
Government, NGO, and consulting staff involved in wildfire mitigation or ecosystem restoration
If you’re involved in writing, reviewing, or implementing fuel treatments, this course is for you.
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This course was designed in response to the Forest Professionals BC (FPBC) scope-of-practice competencies. It helps forest professionals build confidence and competence in planning fire-informed fuel treatments that integrate legal, ecological, and operational requirements. You'll walk away with tools, field experience, and a guidebook tailored to BC’s 2025 FMP template.
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Yes. You’ll get hands-on experience conducting a reconnaissance field visit, assessing fuels, interpreting fire behaviour, and mapping burn units that align with treatment goals. Field days are practical and collaborative.
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5 days of instruction (classroom + field)
S-390 certification with a copy of the Red Book
A professional guidebook on writing fuels management prescriptions for prescribed fire
Digital and printed course materials
Access to additional fire ecology and monitoring resources
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This S-390 course meets all required learning outcomes, but through a different lens. Every scenario, exercise, and discussion is grounded in the fire environment as it relates to fuels management and prescribed fire. By focusing on fire behaviour in the context of writing FMPs, you’ll leave with a deeper and more practical understanding of how fire actually works, and how to plan for it.
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$1100 CAD per participant.
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This course rotates locations throughout BC, typically hosted in communities with active prescribed fire or fuel management programs. Check the course page or contact for upcoming session locations
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You’ll receive a full packing list upon registration. You’ll need:
Field gear (boots, weather-appropriate layers, safety glasses, etc.)
Survey tools (the instructor has enough for training but more always helps)
Notebook or tablet for field data
A laptop or notebook for in-class exercises
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Yes. A tailored version of this course can be delivered for your organization, Nation, or agency. Contact to discuss a custom delivery, including private field sessions using your prescriptions or treatment areas.
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Your instructor, Colleen Ross, is a Wildland Fire Ecologist, Registered Professional Forester (RPF), and Burn Boss with 30 years of hands-on experience in prescribed fire, wildfire operations, and land stewardship. She’s worked across BC with Indigenous communities, government agencies, and land managers to develop and support the review of plans and prescriptions that actually get implemented and burned.
Colleen has:
Instructs fire courses including S-390, S-219, RX-310, and S-244
Helped shaped competencies for prescribed fire in BC
Authored operational tools and guides used by practitioners across the province
Designs monitoring frameworks to track long-term fire effects on vegetation, soils, wildlife and fuels
She brings deep technical knowledge, ecological insight, and real-world operational experience and is committed to mentoring the next wave of fire-informed professionals.