Offered Spring 2024
Schedule & Location: Keen 118
This course will provide a multidisciplinary hands-on apprenticeship to the field methods most commonly used in prescribed fire. It will give graduate students the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of the complexity of weather and the atmospheric boundary layer and fire as a fluid system, and its dynamics through the active participation in prescribed fire field research, operations, organizational and management concepts. It is an entry-level preparation for students considering a career in fire dynamics, fire science and management. This course represents a ""real-world"" practical project experience with time and budget constraints. Students will propose field measurements and produce a short research paper, and present scientific results.
Students will have the opportunity to learn and practice basic land survey techniques, basic site fuels evaluation, basic preparation of burn units, public outreach activities via the project website, and involvement in the organizational and logistic requirements of staging and operating a field project. Students will be introduced to, and work with, various types of surveying, photographic, video, and computer equipment during the course of the field school.
Interested graduate students from related natural sciences (Physics, Meteorology, Environmental Sciences or Studies, Biology, Geosciences, or Chemistry, etc.) are welcome.
Fire Dynamics Field School Research and Operations in Prescribed Fire