The program at Wildland Fire Canada 2010 will examine fire management from emerging issues and best practices on the fire line to strategic policy making and building the fire management community for the new era we face in the 21st century. Through this approach we seek to engage fire crews and front line managers, policy planners, and scientists involved in all aspects of wildland fire management in Canada in oral presentations, poster presentations, and in facilitated discussions.

To accomplish this goal we are planning four main sub-themes running through the conference. Within these sub-themes will be a number of concurrent sessions, with the goal of maximizing presentation of ideas and providing opportunities for participation and discussion.

We are soliciting oral presentations and posters on the following general themes and session topics:

Theme 1: At the fire line
Sessions:

Theme 2: In the response centre
Sessions:

Theme 3: On the landscape
Sessions:

Theme 4: Fire management and the fire community in the 21st century
Sessions:

 

Living with Fire: A new era of Canadian Forest Fire Management

We are entering a new era of forest fire management in Canada. Changing climate, changing forest conditions,  and changing ecological, economic and social imperatives require us to re-think our approach to forest fire management.  Our old models are failing, and we will have to expect, and be prepared for, more challenging fire environments, more challenging fire regimes, and more ecological, economic and social constraints on how we have traditionally done business.  We will have to deal with, and ultimately accept, having more fire in our forests.  We have to start living with fire again.  In this conference we will confront the operational, organizational, research and social challenges this will bring, and explore ways to adapt to these changing conditions as a fire community.

     
 

Presentations will be a mix of formats designed by the session chairs to present information, stimulate discussion, and allow a range of voices to be heard. Sessions may take the form of:

  • several 15-20 minute talks follows by 2 or 3 minutes of questions;
  • a mix of standard talks and shorter case studies or best practice presentations followed by a 30 minute discussion period at the end of session; or
  • panel discussion format. 

THE CALL FOR ABSTRACTS IS NOW OPEN. We encourage you to consider the program themes listed above, and also others that have relevance to wildland fire issues in Canada, and submit an abstract for a proposed presentation.

A formal poster presentation period will also be held giving a wide range of fire managers, IT specialists and researchers a chance to show and discuss specific approaches,products, challenges*, or findings in the more one-to-one, interactive format provided by the poster format. Poster submissions are also strongly welcomed.

*Too often presentations dwell on findings and observations; here we encourage presentations to also include challenges faced by all levels of fire management and research to be presented. Challenges present an opportunity to engage others on a variety of solutions.

Detailed schedule of the Wildland Fire Canada 2010 program