401-Series Fire Ecology and Management Certificate

Meet your 401-series requirements while learning useful information for your future jobs with this certificate.

Upon completion of the certificate program, you will:

• understand the importance of forest and fire ecology as well as fire science concepts to land management and fire management
• have a working familiarity with fire effects and/or fire behavior models
• be prepared to apply your knowledge to your daily job and to land management

Complete course offerings

See the complete course offerings for more information on the classes you’ll be taking.

Current certificate courses

Educational Objectives

We expect certificate candidates have basic writing, speaking and computational skills that would be expected in a wildland fire fighting position. We expect certificate candidates to be proficient in fundamentals of computer operation (some basic Windows based operating system / software experience) and we have provided on-line training links to help them with this.

During the course of the certificate program we expect students to gain the following knowledge and skills:

1. An understanding of ecological adaptations of forests including genetic variation and adaptations as well as the basic concepts of tree reproduction, growth and structure.
2. Students will be able to characterize the biogeochemical processes of forested ecosystems.
3. Comprehension of population models, predator-prey relationships, habitat selection and quality, and the interactions of wildlife and their required resources.
4. An understanding of plant community concepts in forest ecology, niche and niche differentiation concepts and biodiversity concepts.
5. An understanding of disturbance terminology and regime characteristics, the role and importance of native and introduced species and succession terminology and life-history characteristics
6. An understanding of landscape ecology concepts, terminology and the importance of scale in space and time.
7. An understanding of what silviculture is and how it applies to forest and fire management as well as basic concepts of stand development, forest strata, regeneration, site preparation, and intermediate treatments.
8. An understanding of how silvicultural and ecological concepts relate to fuel treatments, fire effects and land management.
9. An understanding of basic GIS concepts and how ArcGIS can be applied directly to forest and fire management issues.
10. An understanding of basic vegetation and fire monitoring terminology, protocols and data as well as fire behavior and fire effects models.
11. An understanding of the philosophical, historical, legal, ecological, social and cultural aspects of land management and how that relates to fire management.

Upon completion of the certificate program:

1. Certificate recipients will understand the importance of forest and fire ecology as well as fire science concepts to land management and fire management.
2. Certificate recipients will have a working familiarity with fire effects and/or fire behavior models
3. Certificate recipients will be prepared to apply their knowledge to their daily jobs and to land management.

Course Costs

General Tuition Costs can be found on the NAU bursar’s office website. Scroll down to the semester of interest and click on the “DISTANCE LEARNING” link.

Arizona residents pay “Resident Undergraduate” tuition and out-of-state students pay “World Wide University (WWU) Undergraduate” rates. Do not look at non-resident rates as these do not apply to this program.

Courses may have additional course and program fees, so please refer to the Enroll Now documents for the specific course. These fees range from $10-$40 per course

Other information

Our certificate program parallels the Undergraduate Certificate in Fire Ecology, Management and Technology at the University of Idaho. If our course schedule does not meet your needs, 6 units of our certificate may be taken elsewhere. Any changes need to be approved in advance by the Northern Arizona University Fire Ecology and Management Certificate advisers.

For more information, please contact us:
Phone: 928-523-3031
E-mail: 401Series@nau.edu