Course Description: This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and communicate the relationship between basic fire regimes and fire effects, the effects of fire treatments on fire effects, and to manipulate fire treatments to achieve desired fire effects.

In an effort to maintain the currency and relevency of the course materials for RX-310, Introducation to Fire Effects, the instructional design has been modified to allow instructors to develop materials based on current information, changing technologies, and the needs of the students.

This course also leads students through the ecological and historical role of fire, characteristics of smoke and the health, safety and visibility impacts of smoke. Other topics include public relations, legal requirement, meteorology, fuel consumption, smoke production dispersion modeling, and operational smoke management strategies. This course is designed to be interactive in nature. It contains a panel discussion, several exercises designed to facilitate group and class participation and case studies from a variety of fuel types and political challenges. The pre-course work assignment is designed to familiarize students with the NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire, PMS 420-2, and air quality regulations that impact prescribed fire programs.

Course Objectives:
The overall objective of these courses are to provide land managers with the knowledge to manage smoke and reduce its impacts on public health and welfare. Given existing and potential air quality regulations, political and social sensitivities, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of fire as an ecological process using the concepts of fire regimes and first order fire effects at multiple scales.
• Identify realistic management solutions in an adaptive management framework.
• Communicate effectively with fire and resource professionals based on a common understanding of first order fire effects.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how fire management related resource issues interact.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how to manipulate treatments to achieve desired first order fire effects.
• Predict, manage, and monitor prescribed fire smoke.
• Describe the legal, professional, and ethical reasons for managing smoke.
• Describe the roles of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations involved with and affected by smoke from prescribed fire.

Course Components and Hours to Complete:
Pre-selection assessment N/A
Pre-course work 4
Onling training N/A
Instructor-led training 32
Total Hours 34

Target Group: Fire and resource specialists involved in fire related decision-making. Interdisciplinary team resource advisors or prescribed fire crew member working towards burn boss, or other prescribed fire positions.

Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 1 (RXB1) and Long Term Fire Analyst (LTAN). Other positions that would benefit from RX-410 include Fire Effects Monitor (FEMO), air regulators, fire ecologists, private landowners, other state and private agencies, prescribed fire consultants, and fire planners.

 

Course Prerequisite:

Students should have a background in prescribed fire planning, implementing, monitoring, permitting or smoke/air regulating.
Working knowledge of fire behavior
Understanding of basic ecological principles
Satisfactory completion of pre-course work.

Brock Campbell

Daniel Boone NF

(859) 745-3185

brock.campbell@usda.gov