The worldwide trend for wildfires is that they are getting bigger, occurring more often, and
causing larger impacts than ever before. The trend for wildfire response resources, such as staff
and equipment, is quite the opposite. Response resources have been overwhelmed and
overworked by the larger wildfires more and more often. They have been strained and
overburdened too often. This research explores what would be required for the remote
communities in the Island Lake Region (ILR) of Manitoba, home to four different First Nations,
to become more wildfire resilient through mitigation. The integral activities for achieving
wildfire resilience for the communities in the ILR include (a) vegetation management in and
around their First Nations, (b) re-learning and re-integrating Indigenous Fire Stewardship (IFS)
into their wildfire mitigation regime, (c) hardening their structures against wildfire by
fireproofing, (d) ongoing maintenance of the built world and vegetation around inside and
surrounding the First Nations, and (e), enhancing coordination of all interested parties to address
multiple challenges that support achieving better wildfire mitigation. Without this latter item
successfully executed, the effectiveness all other measures would be put at risk. The
recommendation is that by working together with other interested parties and completing all
integral activities will leave the First Nations in the ILR more resilient to wildfire.
