(Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today)

By Curtis Goodrum

TRU WILDFIRE PROGRAM

TRU wildfire program excited about future potential

Feb 6, 2026 | 5:42 AM

KAMLOOPS — Since 2018, the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) wildfire program has been working on progressing wildfire sciences throughout the Kamloops region. 

In 2025, the program was approved for certificate programs for wildfire sciences and is now in its second semester. Though the program is new, it has gained a lot of attention from students and the greater wildfire research community. 

“We have noticed so much interest in the program. Before we even started the program, we were having interest from students who were connecting with us and saying, ‘How can we become involved?’ We’re really in the very early stages of the program at this point. At the moment, we have certificates that we’re offering. We’re really looking forward to building additional pieces of education that can complement students who want to work their way through,” Shannon Wagner, Vice-President Research at TRU said. 

Wildfires leave a wake of destruction as they set a flame to trees, brush and grass – but for one master’s student, it’s the basis of her research. 

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“Both my sites are on the eastern side. I’m trying to determine whether they’re getting a rain shadow effect from the Selkirk Mountains that are interrupting the Pacific air masses. Then, trying to compare how elevation affects the microclimate, how aspect, and then burn severity as well,” Sarah McIntyre, TRU Environmental Sciences student SAID. 

The program has attracted people who have worked on fighting wildfires across the country to help them in their efforts. 

“The modelling and machine learning, and how we can put that into use to fight fires in the North. Because we’re such a small organization, we have to do things a little bit differently, to optimize our people and our resources to the full extent,” TRU student Brendan Hajdue said. 

Despite the program being new, instructors are learning along with students to help improve this curriculum for the future. 

“We’ve got a combination of things that are happening face to face on campus, things that are happening virtually in the online space, things that are very theoretically focused, things that are very practical, focused and seeing sort of what how the students respond to all of those kinds of things? Where are they showing interest? What are they really engaged in and trying to learn from those experiences so that next year, in the years after that, we can really make sure that we’re meeting the needs of students,” Wagner said. 

The program and university are working on trying to get a Wildfire Undergraduate Degree for TRU.