Northeast BC Wildland Fire Training

12 May 2025

Project Title: Northeast BC Wildland Fire Training

Recipient: Northeast BC Prescribed Fire Council

Region: Northeast

Project Period: 2025

Awarded Amount: $10,000

Description: This project will aim to train and mentor more than 20 local rights holders, stakeholders, and marginalized peoples in wildland fire with an emphasis on prescribed fire through a two-eyed seeing approach. Prescribed fire is a component of innovative silviculture in BC and Northeast BC Prescribed Fire Council organization is “at the tip of the torch” in putting good fire on the land through a collaborative process with all Treaty 8 and Kaska Nations. This project will address the need and thirst for wildland fire knowledge and implementation in a professional, safe, efficient, and accountable way across many landscapes of BC.

FINAL REPORTING:

The following is based on final reporting by the grantee.

April 8, 2026

We trained and (wo)mentored more than 20 local rights holders, stakeholders, and marginalized peoples in wildland fire with an emphasis on prescribed fire through a two-eyed seeing approach. Prescribed fire is a component of innovative silviculture in BC and our organization is at the tip of the torch in putting good fire on the land through a collaborative process with all Treaty 8 and Kaska Nations. There continues to be great need and thirst for wildland fire knowledge and implementation in a professional, safe, efficient, and accountable way across many landscapes of BC.

The NEBC Rx Fire Council is a newly formed council still gathering direction, however, this did not hold us bac as our partnerships and collaborations across NEBC are keen to support innovative silviculture because we believe in putting good fire out on the land and we strive to share our knowledge in doing so with a re-ignition of cultural practices on Treaty Lands. We consider innovative silviculture to include prescribed fire. While we are a newly formed Council, having attempted numerous times to formalize over the past 2 decades, we continue to push forward in supporting new ways of managing fire based in traditional, cultural, and local ecological knowledge. We achieved our short term goals in 2025 of increasing the knowledge of wildland fire with a focus on prescribed fire by training more than 20 people of the north and by (wo)mentoring them throughout our spring prescribed fire program. In addition to increasing capacity for working with wildland fire, we provided opportunities for relationship building and to identify where additional gaps and needs are for future project expansion. Over the long-term, we would hope to support the implementation of the Peace-Liard Prescribed Fire Program also known as the North East BC Prescribed Fire Program which is founded in the anthropogenic application of fire across northeast BC over the past century and beyond. We hope to unite with other remote and rural organizations to share knowledge and ways of being with the land to allow for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat for current and future generations while natural resource management occurs.

Additionally, on May 2 2025, while our team was mobilizing north from completing the Bare Mountain Prescribed Fire with collaborating partners and Agencies, our trained and certified Rural Incident Management Team attended its first initial attack wildfire on private land north of Aitken Creek where we followed our organization chart and successfully contained and assisted mopping up. This resulted in a 22 hour day of work for our team, however, we demonstrated that our training was successful and that the extreme effort we put into our program is well worth it.

Supporting Extension Materials:

 

Halfway Reporting:

The following is based on halfway reporting by the grantee.

August 28, 2025

NEBC Rural Incident Management and Leadership Training (Photo by S.Leverkus)

  • Over the past decade, wildland fire has and continues to dominate the lives and livelihoods of remote and rural people in northern BC all year.  
  • Together with the Peace River Forage Association, North Peace Cattlemen, South Peace Cattlemen, numerous ranchers, guide outfitters, and Indigenous Communities, we have developed a northeast BC Wildland Fire Program which incorporates the strategic and safe application of fire to the land, reigniting traditional and cultural practices of putting good fire on the land, and preparing and supporting neighbours to help neighbours.  
  • Funding from SIP supported several several components of our program in the northeast:
    • Rural Incident Management Team training including the delivery of leadership and incident command training and structural protection training where we trained over 70 participants in wildland fire.  Many of whom incorporate silvopasture and agrosilviculture practices as part of their land management.
    • Prescribed fire (wo)mentorship at the Peace River Ranch and Bare Mountain Community Pasture where burn bosses and ignition crews were trained while conducting prescribed fires on private and Crown Land.
    • Collaboration amongst Indigenous Communities, ranchers, producers, BC Range Program, BC Wildfire Service, rural and long time residents of northeast BC, Northern Fire WoRx, Peace River Forage Association, North Peace Cattlemen, South Peace Cattlemen, Shifting Mosaics
  • We plan to complete our extension work through the fall and winter once the snow flies!
  • One of the greatest signs of success for the program that SIP has supported through funding was in early May when our crew had successfully completed the Bare Mountain Prescribed Fire and were travelling home to Fort Nelson.  For the most part, everyone had changed out of their sweat soaked nomex gear and were just eating lunch when we received the call from one of our Rural Incident Commanders that he needed help fighting a fire on a local ranch.  Fortunately, our crew was at the right place at the right time and we spent the rest of the day and night supporting our Rural Incident Management Team using all of the gear and knowledge we have built over the past few years with our lead partners at the Peace River Forage Association.  This proves that our concept works for neighbours helping neighbours and that we are an important resource that can support wildfire emergency management led by provincial and territorial agencies.   

NEBC Leadership Training (photo by S. Leverkus)

NEBC Rural Incident Management and Leadership Training (Photo by S. Leverkus)

NEBC Rural Incident Management and Leadership Training (Photo by B. Gagne)

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