Course Overview
This course is divided into two components of Forest Protection: Fire Management and Forest Health. The Fire Management component focuses on forest fire prevention, preparedness, detection, assessment and extinguishing of forest fires. Main topics include: use of Fire Weather Index, use of Weather Information, safe operation of common fire control equipment, fire line organization and supervision, Forest and Range Practices Act, Wildfire Act and Associated Regulations, fire behavior, fire safety, basic fire ecology, wildland/urban interface and other related topics. The Forest Health component introduces common insects and diseases of importance to the forests in British Columbia. It includes recognition of the organisms themselves, as well as the symptoms they produce in forested stands. The significance of life cycles in terms of sampling practices is also addressed. This component also emphasizes the recognition of signs and symptoms of the most important bark beetles, weevils, defoliators, decay causing fungi, rust fungi, and other organisms that influence forest health. A portion of the course includes recognizing abiotic agents that cause tree damage and distinguishing that damage from biotic damage.
Prerequisite(s)
- 50% in FNAM 1600
Credits
5.0
- Not offered this term
- This course is not offered this term. Notify me to receive email notifications when the course opens for registration next term.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, the student will be able to:
- Predict basic fire behavior using fire management decision aids.
- Describe the importance of the fire prevention, detection, preparedness, assessment and suppression phases of fire management.
- Describe operational responsibilities set out in the Forest and Range Practices Act, Wildfire Act and Associated Regulations.
- Conduct an Initial Fire Assessment using the forest fire simulator.
- Describe the basic concepts of the Incident Command System (ICS) used on wildfires
- Use the fire simulator to predict fire behavior and actions to take in bringing a wildfire under control
- Use and understand correct commonly used technical terminology when referring to insect and disease conditions.
- Recognize the signs (including reproductive stages) and symptoms of important fungal diseases associated with forests in BC.
- Identify common insects and diseases most likely to be responsible for specific signs or symptoms of observed forest damage.
- Describe the basic characteristics of the classification system used for insects and fungi.
- Describe the impact of both biotic and abiotic factors on various portions of the tree at the cellular level.
- Describe the general effects heterotrophs have on the functioning of forest ecosystems.
- Identify danger tree defects as per the Wildlife Danger Tree Assessment.
- Define under what conditions an organism becomes labelled as a “pest” and appreciate the impact of forest insect and disease losses on forest health in BC.
- Discuss the potential role of climate change on the distribution of forest health issues in B.C.
- Describe the signs and symptoms of new disease organisms entering the province as a result of recent climatic changes (Dothistroma, Swiss needle cast).
- Differentiate damage from dwarf mistletoe infection from similar symptoms resulting from other causes.
- Outline the silvicultural treatments for dealing with dwarf mistletoe infections in a stand.
Effective as of Fall 2016
Programs and courses are subject to change without notice. Find out more about BCIT course cancellations.