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Webinars and Courses

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February Flare Up 2025: Fire Intelligence

This year's February Flare Up will explore how agencies in Canada and abroad interact with fire intelligence. How are we using these tools and managing training? Who can help us obtain data and make sense of it? And how do we use the information to inform good judgment? Join us every Friday in February as we examine data-driven decision-making!

Week 2: Supporting Wildland Fire Suppression, Restoration, and Prevention by Advancing Analysis Tools

with Daan Aerts, Software Engineer - Wildflyer, Netherlands

Postponed, new date TBA, 2025

9:30-11:00 a.m. MT / 11:30-1:00 p.m. ET

Wildfire analysis is increasingly recognized as a critical tool for effective wildfire management across Europe. However, access to high-quality data and advanced analysis remains prohibitively expensive, often because countries have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to data collection, integration, and reporting. Daan will share how they are building a wildfire analysis platform designed to remove these barriers. By providing accessible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions, Wildflyer aims to empower wildfire managers with the tools they need—without the high costs and technical complexity that have traditionally limited adoption. Join us as we explore how better access to data can lead to smarter, faster, and more coordinated wildfire response across Europe.

Week 3: CFS Wildfire Intelligence and Predictive Services: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Support Resource
with Wildfire Intelligence and Predictive Services, Northern Forestry Centre – Fire Response Manager Brett Moore & Fire Intelligence Officers Sam LaCarte, Rachel Dietrich, and Jon Large. 

Friday, February 21, 2025

9:30-11:00 a.m. MT / 11:30-1:00 p.m. ET

Join us to learn about the emerging Wildfire Intelligence and Predictive Services (WIPS) support team at the Canadian Forest Service. Formed in response to the increasingly complex wildfire seasons and the need for coordinated support to CIFFC partner agencies, WIPS plays a crucial role in national wildfire management. We will discuss: - The emergence of WIPS and its role in providing strategic and operational modeling, tool development, and information delivery to Canadian wildfire management agencies. - Opportunities to work toward consistent and effective support products at the national scale, including via agency request. - A glimpse into near-future initiatives and projects. WIPS seeks to support Canadian fire management agencies and is open to project suggestions that would be of utility to our community.

Week 4: Fire Intelligence, Intuition, and Good Judgement

with Jonathan Reimer, Emergency Manager, Capital Regional District, Victoria BC; Principal, Emergent Risk Management

Friday, February 28, 2025

9:30-11:00 a.m. MT / 11:30-1:00 p.m. ET

Wildfire management is experiencing an information boom: predictive services, remote sensing, machine learning, and models of models. Is it improving decisions and outcomes on the ground? Results are mixed. Wildfire managers operate in dynamic, uncertain, and time-constrained environments, whether on an IMT, strike team, or in a coordination centre. Injecting intelligence can improve decision quality, or lead to cognitive overload, analysis paralysis, and risk aversion. Details matter. Behavioural science is an emerging discipline being applied by the military, medical professionals, and sports franchises to develop expert intuition and improve judgement in difficult circumstances. We'll look at practical tools wildfire managers and agencies can use to ​support decision-makers and improve outcomes. ----- Jonathan Reimer, MSc. is an emergency manager based in Victoria, BC. He is a former director of British Columbia’s Provincial Emergency Coordination Centre, served on a National Incident Management Team with Parks Canada, and was WUI Branch Director on the Horse River fire, Canada's most destructive wildfire disaster. He is a published wildfire researcher and his work on high-impact judgement has been featured by TED, CBC, and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. He is an Emergency Manager with the Capital Regional District and founded Emergent Risk Management to build innovative science-practitioner partnerships.

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