From Assessment to Application

Prescriptions shouldn’t be just paperwork or a funding checkbox. They are the link between ecological intent, fire behaviour, and what actually happens on burn day. When that link is weak, burn plans become guesswork and burn teams are forced to reinterpret (and sometimes rewrite) professional intent in the field without any feedback for the original prescription writer to improve.

This three-day workshop focuses on writing clear, defensible prescriptions that are designed to be burned. Using BC’s current provincial templates, participants learn how to translate ecosystem objectives into fire behaviour logic, treatment layout, ignition considerations, and monitoring that actually informs adaptive management.

The course is taught by a practicing Registered Professional Forester, AFE Wildland Fire Ecologist, and certified Burn Boss, and reflects how prescriptions are reviewed, challenged, and implemented in the real world. The curriculum was shaped through interviews with over 30 professionals involved in prescription review, funding, and burn delivery, including Burn Bosses, Fire Keepers, and WRR specialists.

This course is for practitioners who want their prescriptions to support burn teams, communities, and emerging burn programs, so they can write their own Burn Plans without the requirement of a registered professional signature.

Instructor: Colleen Ross, with guest speakers from municipal mitigation and FPBC.

Course will run with a minimum of 14 students.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the role of a prescription in prescribed fire delivery

• Design prescriptions differently for ecosystem restoration, WUI protection, and fiber-focused projects

• Shift from timber-oriented layouts to fuel- and fire-behaviour-based stratification

• Apply intermediate fire behaviour knowledge to treatment design, plot placement, and burn timing

• Develop fuel treatments that support safe ignition, holding, and desired fire effects

• Build monitoring into prescriptions so outcomes can be evaluated and adapted over time

• Produce prescriptions that a Burn Boss can implement

Course Highlights

• Professional-grade guidebook focused on prescriptions for prescribed fire

• Hands-on reconnaissance, assessment, and design exercises grounded in fire behaviour

• Strong emphasis on scope of practice, professional accountability, and collaboration

• Designed to support communities and burn teams developing their own burn programs

Prerequisites

This course builds directly on intermediate fire behaviour concepts (e.g., S-390). If you’ve completed S-390, you’ll be ready to apply fire behaviour to real-world prescription design.

Pairing S-390 + Prescriptions for Prescribed Fire gives you the strongest foundation for writing prescriptions that are operationally credible, ecologically sound, and burnable.

• Is this just focused on FMPs?

  The learning outcomes and exercises in this course overlap with all prescriptions (FMPs, range plans, ecosystem restoration prescriptions, wildland fire prevention prescriptions).  The instructor has experience in a variety of non-burn prescriptions and encourages you to bring what you use.

• What is this course about?

  This 3-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.

• Do I get certified?

  A certificate will be given to prove your completion so you can put it towards professional development hours and resume.

• Who should take this course?

  • 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.

• How does this course support professional practice?

  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.

• Is there fieldwork?

  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.

• What’s included?

  • 3 days of instruction (classroom + field)

  • A professional guidebook on writing fuels management prescriptions for prescribed fire

  • Digital and printed course materials

  • Access to additional fire ecology and monitoring resources

• Where is the course held?

  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.

• What should I bring?

  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

  • The Field Guide to the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior (FBP) System aka Red Book

• Can you deliver this course privately?

  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.

• What makes this instructor qualified?

  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 western North America with Indigenous communities, government agencies, and land managers to develop, support and review plans and prescriptions that actually get implemented and burned.

  • 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

  • Completed the pilot to this course with excellent reviews and feedback.

  She brings deep technical knowledge, ecological insight, and real-world operational experience and is committed to mentoring the next wave of fire-informed professionals.