Fire Ecology and Management, Undergraduate Certificate

In addition to University Requirements:

• Complete individual plan requirements.

Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

Minimum Units for Completion	18
Major GPA	2.0

Purpose Statement

This undergraduate certificate is designed to provide a strong background for students interested in studying fire or working in natural resources on fire management and general land management issues.

The content studied includes the basics physical and chemical properties of fire, fire effects on ecosystems, management issues surrounding wildland fire, fire behavior modeling and monitoring and the interaction of climate, fire regimes and management. Skills developed include developing and implementing a monitoring program related to fire effects, the use of several different fire behavior and fire effects models, writing a fuels specialist report and a fire monitoring plan. Completion of this certificate with the Forestry B.S. degree meets the academic qualifications for the Fire Ecologist Certification through the Association for Fire Ecology.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this certificate, students will have:

• An understanding of the physical process of fire and factors that influence surface and crown fire spread, extreme fire behavior and what fire danger rating is.
• An understanding and the basic use of terminology and fire models used in fire management.
• An understanding of fire regimes and fire effects in a variety of ecological systems.
• An understanding of the philosophical, historical, legal, ecological, social and cultural aspects of land management and how that relates to fire management.
• An understanding of monitoring, the adaptive management process, and the components of a monitoring program.
• An understanding of sampling, variation, standard deviation, p-values and hypothesis testing.
• An understanding of different types of experiments, independence, confounding factors and the basics of experimental design.
• An understanding of different sampling methods and different federal fire monitoring programs.

Certificate Requirements

• Take the following 18 units with a Grade of "C" or better:

  Students must complete one course from each of the following blocks:

• Ecology (4 units)

  • FOR 313

• Measurement, Analysis and Technology (4 units)

  • FOR 449

• Fire Ecology (3 units)

  • Select from the following (3 units):
    • FOR 451, FOR 551

• Fuel Management (4 units)

  • FOR 315

• Management, Planning, and Policy (3 units)

  • Select from the following (3 units):
    • FOR 434, FOR 445

• FOR 251 is not a requirement for this certificate; however, it is a prerequisite for FOR 449 and FOR 451.

• A minimum of 11 units of coursework must be taken at Northern Arizona University.

• This certificate may only be pursued and completed concurrently with a degree program. This certificate is not available as a stand-alone certificate.

• Students enrolled in this certificate may not enroll in or pursue the following due to the number of overlapping units:

• • Fire and Forest Management Professional, Undergraduate Certificate

Additional Information

• Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also successfully complete. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.

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