Wilfrid Laurier University

Purpose

The Wilfrid Laurier University research team along with staff and students from the Environment and Natural Resources Technology Program at Aurora College’s Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, will evaluate how pre-fire forest conditions mediate forest resilience in the face of megafire events. These activities aim to remeasure the burned permanent plots to advance understanding of the impact of pre-fire conditions on post-fire outcomes, notably for caribou lichen and soil carbon combustion; and to establish a network of new forest monitoring plots in the burned forests around Fort Smith and Tsu Lake camp. In its collaboration in training college students in fire ecology research methods, this research project will establish a research and monitoring infrastructure for the college’s Environment and Natural Resources Technology Program and support its transition to a polytechnic university.