Leading with Experience and a Passion for Stewardship
Ken Morrice,
Operations Manager,
Association of Manitoba Community Pastures
When most people see fire, they see destruction.
Ken Morrice sees renewal. After more than 20 years working in Manitoba's Community Pastures and two decades serving on his local fire department, Ken understands that fire can be one of nature's most powerful tools for restoring healthy grasslands. As Operations Manager with AMCP and a member of the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange (CPPFE) Steering Committee, he is helping lead efforts to bring prescribed fire back to the landscape, creating better grazing opportunities, healthier ecosystems, and a stronger future for prairie stewardship.
When Ken Morrice talks about prescribed fire, he does not start with flames. He starts with the land.
After more than 20 years working in Manitoba's Community Pastures system, Ken has seen firsthand how healthy grasslands support livestock producers, wildlife, and entire rural communities. Today, as Operations Manager with the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures (AMCP), he helps oversee everything from water infrastructure and pasture operations to co-leading the organization's growing prescribed fire program.
For Ken, stewardship is more than a job description. It is a responsibility.
AMCP is a producer-led organization committed to supporting the livestock industry through high-quality grazing opportunities while maintaining sustainable rangeland stewardship. Across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, AMCP manages community pastures that provide grazing for more than 42,000 head of livestock each year while supporting biodiversity, healthy soils, species-at-risk habitat, and water quality.
As pressures on grasslands continue to grow, one tool has become increasingly important in maintaining those landscapes: prescribed fire.
A Lifetime Around Fire
Ken's experience with fire began long before prescribed burning became a major part of his work.
Since 2000, he has been involved in fire management, including 20 years of service with his local Volunteer Fire Department. During that time, he has gained experience in nearly every role imaginable, from working the fireline to leading burn operations. That broad background gave him a deep understanding of how fire behaves and how it can be used safely and effectively on the landscape.
When he joined AMCP in 2016 following the dissolution of the PFRA program, he brought that experience with him. What he found was an opportunity to use fire not simply as a means of suppression, but as a tool for renewal.
Bringing Fire Back to the Grasslands
Over the past five years, AMCP has worked closely with the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange (CPPFE) to develop and expand its prescribed burn program. Together, they have completed burns on more than 1,500 acres in the Spy Hill-Ellice and Ellice-Archie Community Pastures, helping address one of the biggest challenges facing many prairie landscapes: brush encroachment.
In spring 2026, AMCP completed an 850-acre prescribed burn focused on reducing new aspen growth and removing dead woody material left behind following insect infestations. The result was more than cleaner pastures. The burn helped rejuvenate grassland areas and restore conditions that support healthy forage production.
For Ken, those outcomes are what make the effort worthwhile.
"I enjoy the results of a successful burn and seeing how grass can rejuvenate as well as the way it can help control the brush encroachment. This then increases the grazing for cattle that we run on our pastures.”
Leadership Through Partnership
In 2024, Ken began representing AMCP on the CPPFE Steering Committee, helping strengthen collaboration among prescribed fire practitioners, ranchers, land managers, and conservation partners across the Prairies.
He recognizes that prescribed fire is not something any one organization can accomplish alone.
Successful burns require planning, training, equipment, and people willing to work together. Building that capacity remains one of AMCP's largest challenges, particularly given the short weather-dependent burn windows available each year. However, through continued partnerships and growing equipment resources, AMCP is steadily expanding its ability to conduct burns across its network of pastures.
Plans are already underway for future prescribed burns in the Wallace and Turtle Mountain Community Pastures, demonstrating the organization's long-term commitment to using fire as a stewardship tool.
Looking Ahead
For Ken, prescribed fire is not about acres burned or projects completed. It is about creating healthier landscapes that can continue supporting livestock producers, wildlife, and future generations. His career reflects a simple but powerful belief: when used responsibly, fire can be one of the most effective tools available for restoring and maintaining prairie ecosystems.
As AMCP continues to build its prescribed fire program, leaders like Ken Morrice are helping demonstrate that fire is not just a force of destruction. It is also a force of renewal, resilience, and stewardship.