RX-410 | Smoke Management

This course leads students through the ecological and historical role of fire, characteristics of smoke and the health, safety and visibility impacts of smoke. Other topics include public relations, legal requirements, meteorology, fuel consumption, smoke production dispersion modeling, and operational smoke management strategies. This course is designed to be interactive in nature. It contains a panel discussion, several exercises designed to facilitate group and class participation and case studies from a variety of fuel types and political challenges. The pre-course work assignment is designed to familiarize students with the NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire, PMS 420-2, and air quality regulations that impact prescribed fire programs.

Objectives

The overall objective of this course is to provide land managers with the knowledge to manage smoke and reduce its impacts on public health and welfare. Given existing and potential air quality regulations, political and social sensitivities, the students will be able to:

Predict, manage, and monitor prescribed fire smoke.
Describe the legal, professional, and ethical reasons for managing smoke.
Describe the roles of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations involved with and affected by smoke from prescribed fire.

Smoke Management | Cost: $150

Classes will begin at 0800 (CT).

Classes are scheduled to end each day by 1700 (CT).

Instructor: Roger Fryer

May 11th - 14th | Individual Registration

Course Components and Hours to Complete

Pre-selection Assessment: N/A
Pre-course Work: 2
Online Training N/A
Instructor-led Training: 32
Total Hours: 34

Minimum Instructor Qualifications

Instructors must have prescribed and wildland fire experience as it relates to smoke management planning and implementation.

Also see Instructor Certification at the beginning of the Field Manager's Course Guide.

This course is quite demanding from an instructional perspective. Positive course dynamics depend greatly on the technical knowledge, skill and enthusiasm of the instructor. When hosting this course, it is highly recommended that a mentoring program be established for new or potential instructors to shadow experienced instructors.

The shadow will have the opportunity to really focus on the specific material and interact one-on-one with the instructor to acquire a full understanding of the subject before teaching it. This effort will help maintain the quality and consistency of the course and benefit new instructors as well. The intent is simply to build a pool of quality instructors and maintain the integrity of the course.

Course Prerequisites

Students should have a background in prescribed fire planning, implementing, monitoring, permitting or smoke/air regulating.

Satisfactory completion of pre-course work.

Course Level

Regional, state, or area