The Crown Managers Partnership partnered with the Northern Rockies Fire Science Network and others to bring you the 2021 Fire in the Crown of the Continent Forum, which was held virtually from March 22nd to March 26th.

The Crown Managers Partnership is a multi-jurisdictional partnership among federal, state, provincial, tribal, and first nation agency managers and universities in Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia. Annual forums facilitate networking opportunities, build collaboration, and deepen understanding of common issues in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

View the Forum Report (in the Files block) with summaries from presentations and special sessions (published November 2021).

Each day of the forum featured a new fire related topic:

March 22nd: Fire Past and Future: Fact, Fiction, and Uncertainty

Robert Keane: Interacting interactions: effects of climate change on forest vegetation and wildland fire in the Northern Rockies
Marc-Andre Parisien: Wildland fire deficit and surplus in the western North America
Lori Daniels: Disrupted fire regimes in the Canadian montane forests
Don Gayton: Fire in the dry forest: a pilgrim’s progress  

March 23rd: Traditional Knowledge and Active Fire Use in the Crown

Traditional Knowledge Panel - Mike Bruised Head, Marty Williams, Tony Harwood and Monique Wynecoop: Past, Present and Future use of fire on the land 
Julie Couse and Bob Gray: Building resilience in dry forests of the east Kootenays: planning, operations and lessons learned 
Laura Lines and Elliot Fox: Fire with fire: Braiding Indigenous and scientific knowledges of fire management to enhance climate change resilience in Alberta

March 24th: Fire in the Human Environment

Sarah McCaffrey: Observations and myths about public perceptions of fire and fire management
Peter Lahm: The challenge of more smoke
Sarah McCaffrey: Barriers to use of prescribed and wildfire
 
March 25th: Fire Management in Practice

Brian Harvey: Regional trends in burn severity, tree regeneration and reburns in the Northern Rockies
Mike Munoz: Managing wildland fire for landscape benefit and beyond
Tami Parkinson: Program and tools for integrating local objectives with incident management
Al Neal: British Columbia ecosystem restoration program      

March 26th: Fire in Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems

Uldis Silins: Wildfire impacts to water in the Rocky Mountains: How much can we generalize?
Cristina Eisenberg: Restoring native fescue prairie using fire and TEK in Waterton Lakes National Park and the Blood Timber Limit
Eleanor Bassett: Post-wildfire seeding in a low elevation dry forest and a decade of vegetation monitoring
Michael Murray: Best fire management practices for endangered pines in the Crown of the Continent