We’re in the midst of a paradigm shift in how we think about fire,” says Associate Professor Lori Daniels, whose research centres on understanding the effects on the forest of fire, insect outbreaks, and climate change. “We used to put all our effort into preventing, detecting and suppressing fires, and now we are starting to understand how fire is an important part of forest ecosystems.”
Bruce Blackwell RPBio, RPF, a Forestry alumnus and Principal of B.A. Blackwell and Associates, agrees. “Too much emphasis on protecting the forest from fire leads to fuel buildups and stress in the forest, increasing susceptibility to disease, and eventually larger and more serious fires that impact social, environmental and economic values important to society.”
Bruce has been involved with fire for his entire career, and is passionate about fire science. So passionate, in fact, that he has established the B.A. Blackwell and Associates Scholarship in Fire Science. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a graduate student studying fire science, beginning in 2015-16.
“I’ve really benefitted from my UBC education, and it’s important that I give back,” he says. Bruce received a BSF in 1984 and an MSc in 1989.
Bruce established B.A. Blackwell and Associates in 1988, with a focus on integrated forestry and environmental consulting services. Today the North Vancouver-based company has a team of four Associates and 20 staff.
Since the early 1990s, when Bruce worked on the management plan for Metro Vancouver’s water supply, the firm has specialized in forest fire management, and Bruce has become an acknowledged expert in this field. “It’s very diverse and rewarding work. We have worked with Aboriginal communities, all levels of government in western and northern Canada, and with many areas outside forestry, like agriculture, mining, parks and the environment.”
Bruce believes strongly in giving back to forestry. He teaches students looking to join the profession via the Ecological Restoration program at BCIT. He taught Fire Science at UBC before Professor Daniels joined the Faculty, and is a popular guest-lecturer in her course on fire. He’s also been a volunteer speaker at the Student Industry Networking evening, offering advice about careers in forestry.
“There’s such a strong need for more people researching fire,” he says. “We need to treat fire as an ecological factor in forest development, not as the purely detrimental thing we used to see it as. We have to research the various effects that fire has on forest structure and function.”
Lori Daniels agrees. “This scholarship will help support students to learn about fire as an ecological process; to understand its impact historically and today, and how it shapes the landscape. Everything from fire history over hundreds of years to the effects of fire suppression around rural communities to using prescribed fire to restore the habitat of endangered species.”
Prof. Daniels’ lab currently supports six graduate students, five of whom are working on fire-related research projects. In addition, up to 10 undergraduate forestry students work as Research Assistants or complete essays or directed studies about fire each year.