Spring 2023 Fuel Treatment Efficacy & Landscape Resiliency Research & Knowledge Sharing Event Materials

Overview

This event was held on February 28th & March 1st, 2023, at the Forest Sciences Centre at UBC. The purpose of the event was for knowledge extension & integration of academic research and operational fire management experience. Additionally, the event developed a shared input and partnership approach to identifying key research project ideas and questions that will form the 2023 Prevention Research Business Plan (a 1-3 year plan), building off of the key themes in the BCWS Research Strategy.

Agenda

A full agenda can be found here.

Presentations

1. Dr. Lori Daniels of UBC opens up the February 28, 2023 face-to-face fuel treatment workshop at UBC by providing a brief overview of fuel metrics, fire weather, and fire behaviour modelling used in assessing treatment efficacy.
   • Fuel treatment efficacy & landscape resiliency research & knowledge sharing event
2. Georgina Preston, a masters student at UBC, gives an overview of the challenges that the First Nations communities of Stswecem’c (Canoe Creek) and Xget’tem (Dog Creek) face in conducting WUI fuel treatments on crown land, and models the risks to these communities if they cannot.
   • Colonial land management systems: Barriers to First Nation community wildfire mitigation in Interior British Columbia 
3. Kea Rutherford, masters student at UBC, explores the impact of different fuel treatment scenarios on modelled fire behaviour at 90th percentile weather conditions and presents key findings to improve the efficacy of future fuel treatments.
   • Are current fuel reduction strategies successfully mitigating risk of catastrophic wildfire in rural communities in the Kootenay Region of British Columbia, Canada?
4. Jen Baron, PhD candidate at UBC, provides an overview of historical fire regimes in southeast BC, explains the current fire deficit and resulting fuel accumulations, as well as the challenges involved with accurately characterizing fuels with currently available data.
   • Landscape-level fire regime disruption: Addressing fire deficits and fuel accumulation
5. Jocelyne Laflamme, research geographer at UBC, presents research with UBC and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions that uses modeling to better understand landscape-level resilience, how future climate may change what fire-resilient landscapes look like, and how we can use forest management tools to enhance resilience.
   • Understanding landscape-level resilience to fire in British Columbia’s Okanagan
6. Dr. Kira Hoffman and Dr. Alana Clason of the Bulkley Valley Research Centre discuss how forest management and wildfire suppression have contributed to an increase in the size and severity of recent wildfires in the sub-boreal spruce (SBS) biogeoclimatic zone.
   • Fire severity in sub-boreal managed forests
7. Dr. Kira Hoffman of the Bulkley Valley Research Centre provides an overview of her work reconstructing fire histories in Cheslatta T’En (central interior BC). These fire histories point to frequent use of cultural fire by the Cheslatta-Carrier people.
   • Returning to burning: Reconstructing Cheslatta fire histories
8. Steve Hvenegaard of FPInnovations provides an overview and update on the main fuel treatment efficacy projects FPI is currently undertaking with BCWS.
   • Fuel treatment efficacy research
9. Dr. Steve Taylor of the Canadian Forest Service – Pacific Forestry Centre gives an update on ongoing fuel treatment-related projects within the CFS.
   • Update on some fuels-related research initiatives at Pacific Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada
10. Kelsey Winter (BCWS FireSmart) and Steve Hvenegaard (FPInnovations) provide an overview of FireSmart BC research initiatives and data collection methods used by FPInnovations when wildfires encroach on the WUI.
    • FireSmart BC 2023 Research: Wildfire in the WUI
11. Dr. Jen Beverly of the University of Alberta discusses limitations of current fire behaviour modelling in fuel treated areas and emphasizes the need for future fuel treatments to include landscape-level, holistic, and innovative approaches.
    • Fuel management planning – some research insights from Alberta
12. Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais at UBCO provides an overview of the work his lab has done to develop inexpensive weather stations that communicate via 5G networks and, when paired with a fuel moisture data app, can provide real-time fire risk models.
    • Smart forests: Building community and ecological fire resilience using real-time monitoring of forest conditions through 5G and next generation fuel models
13. TRU masters student and BCWS employee Dominique Manwaring presents the results of her masters thesis using BC CANFIRE models to examine the efficacy of a wildfire risk reduction project in the South Cariboo.
    • BC CANFIRE: Examining current and future effects of climate and forest changes on fuel management treatments for the wildland urban interface in the south Cariboo, British Columbia
14. Dr. Derek Van Der Kamp from the Canadian Forest Service provides an overview of the Next Generation Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System and discusses ongoing subcanopy microclimate and fuel moisture research.
    • Subcanopy microclimate and fuel moisture research at the Canadian Forest Service