About the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association
The RM of Stuartburn is located along the US border in southeast Manitoba. Our area consists of a mix of tall-grass prairie, aspen parkland and developed agricultural land. Many of our privately-owned lands are adjacent to and intermingled with nature preserve lands.
The SPBA was established to help provide tools, training, education, and resources for its members to plan, conduct, and monitor prescribed burns and other fuel management practices in a safe and effective manner. This will enable members to better manage their natural resources for wildlife and to reduce the risk of wildfires.
The Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association (SPBA) successfully completed its inaugural prescribed burn over a relatively small two-acre area. While modest in size, the event marked a significant milestone in the development of Canada’s first citizen-led prescribed burn association.
This accomplishment was made possible through the vision and leadership of the association’s founding directors, more than 1,200 hours of volunteer effort, and the support of numerous partners and supporters, including the RM of Stuartburn, CPPFE, Nature Manitoba, Intact Financial Corporation, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Seahawk & Acres Emergency Vehicles.
Through these efforts and partnerships, the association was able to:
Incorporate and develop policies and procedures for governance, training, burn plans, and safety protocols.
Obtain liability insurance and WCB coverage for members.
Secure funding to purchase essential tools and equipment.
Conduct outreach and education throughout southeast Manitoba on the benefits of prescribed fire, resulting in 35 memberships.
Fully train 14 people to perform prescribed fire operations, while engaging an additional 25 participants in portions of the training program.
Design and custom-build slip tanks and fire water pumping systems.
Assemble a team of 12 personnel to participate in the first prescribed burn.
Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association Inaugural 2-Acre Training Burn -April 26, 2026…Over Two Years of Planning and Preparation
Burn Unit Goals
The burn unit was designed to achieve the following goals:
Reduce aspen and willow encroachment in prairie habitat.
Reduce fuel load, specifically accumulated litter.
Invigorate native prairie species.
Reduce invasive species.
Improve wildlife habitat.
Improve grazing productivity.
Provide a training and live-fire opportunity for SPBA members in a low-complexity environment.
Demonstrate that the SPBA could conduct prescribed fire safely and effectively.
Burn Objectives
The specific objectives for the burn were to:
Burn more than 90% of the unit.
Achieve top-kill of more than 75% of saplings and shrubs.
Provide live-fire training for a minimum of eight members.
Attract three or more interested community observers.
Generate interest from at least one media outlet.
Add one fire and two acres to the association’s Intact Grant funding deliverables.
Observe changes to grassland and wildlife species over the following three years.
The burn took place following an unusually slow spring melt. Frost remained in the ground, resulting in standing water across portions of the burn unit and muddy conditions along some of the more exposed, low-lying mowed firebreaks.
Prior to the burn, a comprehensive burn plan was prepared, reviewed, and approved by the SPBA President. The plan addressed all essential requirements necessary to conduct the operation safely.
Pre-burn quadrat surveys were also completed to establish baseline measurements of dry fuel loads within the unit.
As this was the first deployment of the association’s newly built equipment, and the first live-fire experience for six participants, several hours were devoted to pre-burn training. This session refreshed operational procedures and familiarized all personnel with the equipment, particularly the water delivery systems.
The incident command structure was established with the landowner serving as Incident Commander (Burn Boss) and Lookout. The association’s two most experienced directors acted as Task Force Leaders, supported by four crew members on each task force responsible for ignition and holding operations. An additional member, recovering from a recent injury, assisted as a lookout and communications liaison.
Early Challenges
The first challenge emerged before ignition operations began. While entering the eastern fire guard, the ATV towing the water wagon became stuck in muddy terrain.
The association’s newly acquired 6x6 Defender quickly demonstrated its value by successfully winching the water wagon free and navigating the difficult conditions. This experience prompted a reassessment of wet and muddy areas, leading to the relocation of the water wagon beyond the soft ground before ignition activities commenced, reducing the risk of a recurrence during active fire operations.
Conducting the Burn
Following the pre-burn planning meeting and completion of the Go/No-Go checklist, a test fire was conducted and confirmed that conditions were suitable to proceed.
Crews established the initial black line and advanced along both flanks in opposite directions before completing the operation using a ring-fire technique with a head fire. The entire burn was completed in approximately 45 minutes without any challenges to the fire lines.
Several wind-direction shifts occurred during the operation. In response, crews implemented tactical pauses to assess fire behavior and adjust the relative progression rates of each task force accordingly.
Due to the light fuel conditions, mop-up requirements were minimal, and very little water was consumed during the burn. Wet lines were nevertheless applied along the mowed fire guards both as an added precaution and as a practical training opportunity for participants using the association’s water systems.
Celebrating a Milestone
At the conclusion of the burn, participants celebrated a significant achievement for the association.
The RM Reeve provided cake to mark the occasion, while the landowner presented each member with a custom water bottle commemorating the milestone.
An after-action review was then conducted with all participants to gather feedback and identify opportunities for improvement.
Lessons Learned
The review identified the following lessons:
Minor improvements could be made to the water systems to enhance functionality and serviceability.
Additional training would be beneficial to help members manage potential slips, trips, and falls while carrying and operating drip torches.
Further evaluation of the association’s two-way radios is required to determine whether alternative communication equipment would improve communication clarity.
Results
The burn met or exceeded all stated goals and objectives, with the exception of the target percentage of the unit burned. Burn coverage was slightly lower than anticipated due to standing water in several areas within the burn unit.
Two additional training burns had been scheduled for the 2026 season; however, both were cancelled following the implementation of a local burn ban on May 6, 2026.
This experience reinforced the importance of maintaining multiple burn sites in a state of readiness and taking advantage of all available burn windows that fall within prescription. Conditions can shift rapidly from too wet to too dry, significantly reducing opportunities to burn.
The association is also limited by the maximum wind speed of 15 km/h specified in RM bylaws and burn permit requirements, further reducing the number of available burn days.
Another current constraint is the relatively small number of experienced members capable of filling advanced operational roles such as Task Force Leader and Incident Commander.
Throughout the summer months, the association focused on implementing the lessons learned from the inaugural burn while continuing to train new members in preparation for the fall 2026 burn season.
The successful completion of this inaugural prescribed burn represents a major milestone for the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association and demonstrates the potential of a citizen-led model for restoring and managing prairie landscapes safely and effectively
Article Credit: Dan