Hello Fireshed Community!
We’re halfway through September and we hope you’re looking forward to fall as much as we are! Today we wanted to share with you some information about cultural forest practices and the complex relationship humans have had with forest management for millennia. It is a common misconception that that the American West was “shaped entirely by natural forces” prior to arrival of Europeans, however, burning and logging have played a significant role across our landscape for nearly 15,000 years. Read on to learn more about these forest management techniques and the indigenous peoples who practice them today.
This Wildfire Wednesday features information on:
Cultural burning
Ancestral logging practices
Upcoming opportunity to be involved in (or learn more about) a prescribed burn!
Have a great week,
Liz
Cultural Burning
What is cultural burning?
Cultural burning falls within the broader category of prescribed (or controlled) burns. What sets cultural burning apart is that within indigenous communities, these burnings are “pertinent and substantial to the cultural livelihood”. Anthropologists have found identified more than 70 different purposes for using fire within indigenous and aboriginal cultures. Some uses of fire include communication across long distances, reduction of pest populations, opening forests to attract game species, and moving herds in desired directions. To learn more about cultural burning watch this video by The Nature Conservancy “Revitalizing Cultural Burning practices, New Mexico and Beyond” or visit the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network for more resources.
“Cultural burning by Native Americans interconnected them not only to the
land but to their animal, reptile, bird and plant spiritual relatives.
Therefore, conducting a cultural burn relates to what they burned, how
they burned it, and why they burned it”
History of cultural burning
As stated above, indigenous peoples have been using fire for many purposes across the American West for thousands of years. With the arrival of Europeans to the Western U.S. came the notion that all fire was bad and should be suppressed, a mentality that has taken generations to overcome. Only in the past few decades has the movement for revitalization of cultural burning practices and integration of indigenous peoples’ knowledge into policy and management gained traction. Click on the buttons below to check out academic papers detailing the history of cultural burning practices in the American West.
Cultural burning success stories
Photo credit: Kiliii Yuyan
The Yurok tribe in California has been working to restore their cultural relationship with fire and “reclaim their right to use fire”. An internal assessment of community needs identified restoring the use of fire as the number one priority for tribal members. To address this, the Cultural Fire Management Council was created to return fire to Yurok lands. Since the establishment of this committee, there have been many Yurok TREXs (Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges) to share knowledge with collaborators and train tribal members. Click here to read the in-depth article from The Nature Conservancy about the Yurok Tribe and their “rekindling of the ancient art of controlled burning”
Mono tribe cultural burning (video below): “For thousands of years, California Indians used fire as a tool for managing natural resources. Throughout the state, Native peoples conducted cultural burns on a wide range of plants and it was their fire regimes that created diverse habitat mosaics that sustained meadows, coastal prairies, and grasslands. The careful application of fire increased fruit and seed production, caused new growth that was better suited for making baskets, and reduced the fuel load that could be burned by naturally occurring wildfires. But starting with the Spanish conquest and continuing today in the form of Forest Service and Cal Fire policies, fire suppression has drastically limited cultural burning. As a result, the forest has become incredibly dense and we are now facing a situation in the Sierras where drought is causing many trees to die. This massive tree mortality has brought the forest to a tipping point where large scale wildfires threaten to alter the Sierras permanently. In this video, we explore how cultural burning is being practiced today and what lessons it holds for the future of the forest. We visit the area just south of Yosemite National Park where two tribes are working to bring fire back to the land, the North Fork Mono Tribe and the Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians.”
Photo Credit: Central Oregon Fire Info
Our final success story comes from Washington and Orgeon where the Bureau of Land Management have been collaborating with tribal leadership to develop prescribed burning projects. This year they have already noticed a difference in the fire severity in the areas that were treated with controlled burns versus areas that were not treated. This collaboration is yielding positive outcomes, however, tribal members also want to be more than just consultants on these projects and hope to be allocated resources to carry out this kind of management on their own lands. Click here to read the article “Indigenous practice could be key to taming wildfires”
Ancestral logging practices
The original wildland-urban interface in New Mexico was on the Jemez Plateau nearly 12,000 years ago where inhabitants practiced a form of selective logging. “Life on the Jemez Plateau required all the fine fuels that villagers could get their hands on. In roof construction alone, villagers cut hundreds of thousands of small-diameter timbers for supportive vigas, while understory growth went for fuelwood. Outside of villages, trails and agricultural fields acted as firebreaks.” There were actually more fires burning on the Jemez Plateau during this time compared to today, however, in part due to these forestry practices the fires were small and low in severity. Visit this 2017 High Country News article or read the paper below to learn more!
Upcoming Zuni TREX
In October 2021 The Forest Stewards Guild, Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest and other partners will lead a collaborative burn that will provide opportunities for local practitioners to build experience and contribute to the ecological resilience of these fire-adapted forests.
