Cultural fire and prescribed fire are essential practices for restoring balance, maintaining ecosystem health, and reducing wildfire risk across British Columbia’s forests.

Cultural fire, led by Indigenous knowledge holders, is deeply rooted in place-based stewardship and community values, while prescribed fire is applied by forest professionals and practitioners to meet ecological and hazard reduction objectives. Both approaches require careful planning, consultation, and collaboration to ensure they are implemented safely, respectfully, and effectively.

For the forest professional, this means recognizing and integrating Indigenous knowledge systems, community priorities, and regulatory frameworks into fire management strategies. It requires a willingness to listen, to build trust, and to work across diverse perspectives and practices. This session will explore the role of consultation in cultural and prescribed fire, highlighting opportunities for learning, collaboration, and professional application in the field.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this presentation, attendees will have learned:

1. What cultural burning is and how it contributes to wildfire management.
2. The differences between prescribed fire with consultation and cultural fire.
3. Why forest professionals should use a collaborative approach to burning with First Nations as part of a comprehensive approach to landscape management.
4. Considerations for how and why intentional fire (prescribed and cultural) preserves ecological values and contributes to long-term forest health objectives.
5. Current challenges to prescribed burning with consultation and cultural burning in landscape management.