Future of North American Wildland Fire Science

Our lab is currently working on a two-year project funded by the Canadian Wildfire Service to help develop a North American Wildland fire Science Strategy for the next decade. With climate change, increased fuel loads, growing community exposure, and other stressors, wildland fire science needs to adapt for the next decade.

To support the Canadian, American, and Mexican Forest Services in developing a science strategy, we have been asked to lead the data collection portion of the project. Through 2023 and 2024, we are interviewing and surveying stakeholders from all three countries about their views on the research gaps and needs to meet this growing challenge.

Project Team 

History of the Project

The initial idea for this project was originally proposed at the North American Forest Commission-Fire Management Working Group meeting in 2018. From there, a series of collaborators across North America articulated the need for a blueprint that addresses the needs of North American fire science in Wildfire Magazine (read the paper here). The authors and collaborators of this work argue that such a blueprint could help improve international cooperation on wildfire management and science, diversify fire science, align wildfire research with current and culture needs, and make results more available to promote informed decision making (Pérez-Salicrup et al. 2020). The current North American Blueprint project is an evolution of this foundational work, and incorporates learnings from the literature, as well as conversations with practitioners and other researchers.

If you want to receive updates about what we find, please email ebk@yorku.ca.