Fighting Fire with Fire
Last month, after fire escaped a Forest Service prescribed burn in New Mexico, Chief Randy Moore announced a sweeping order, pausing all prescribed fire operations on National Forest lands. This reactionary measure came right as the burn window was opening up for many states, halting the majority of prescribed burns on American soil.
While the escapement of the New Mexico fire is unfortunate, these events are rare, and the suspension of all controlled fire on National Forest lands could have negative implications as we enter the 2022 fire season. Research in recent years has shown that introducing controlled fire to a landscape is one of the best tools in our arsenal for preventing extreme fire events, such as the ones we have experienced in northern California over the last decade.
While western science is just now catching up to this fact, Indigenous people across the globe have been practicing intentional burning for millennia. Including local tribes such as Karuk and Yurok, who are now leaders in the global conversation about the practice of cultural and prescribed burning.
Explore the articles below to learn more about the importance of prescribed and cultural burning. Don't miss the "Good Fire - 2022" video, recently released by the Karuk Tribe.
News
North America’s Native nations reassert their sovereignty: ‘We are here’
Across the continent, Indigenous peoples are methodically reasserting control over their land, laws, and how they live.
Fighting Fire with Fire - Reveal
As climate change continues making wildfires worse, how do we learn to live with fire?
Indigenous knowledge reveals history of fire-prone California forest
Indigenous oral accounts have helped scientists to reconstruct a 3,000-year history of a large fire-prone forest in California. The results suggest that parts of the forest are denser than ever before, and are at risk of severe wildfires1. The research is part of a growing effort to combine Indigenous knowledge with other scientific data to improve understanding of ecosystem histories.
The US Forest Service’s controlled burn strategy started started New Mexico’s largest wildfire - Vox
Controlled burns are more dangerous but more necessary than ever.
Fighting fire with fire: Controlled burns remain essential as US wildfires intensify
In 2015, the Lake Fire burned 31,000 acres in this popular hiking forest northeast of Los Angeles. It destroyed four buildings, came perilously close to the resort town of Big Bear Lake and took more than 1,900 firefighters five days to contain at a cost of almost $40 million.
As wildfires threaten, prescribed burns can protect America's forests
Even as the Forest Service halts controlled burns for 90 days after a rare escape in New Mexico, experts say the prescribed fire needs to expand.
Good Fire - Spring 2022 on Vimeo
View and download the Good Fire report: karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/
In 2020, over four percent of California burned in wildfire. Over 30 people lost their lives in the fires; experts estimate an additional 3,000 premature deaths may have resulted from wildfire smoke. Property damage is expected to top $10 billion and related greenhouse gas emissions erased California’s progress on climate change. Cultural burning and prescribed fire are essential tools in managing these impacts, restoring California’s fire-adapted ecosystems, and repairing the fraught relationship between California, its Indigenous peoples, and stewardship of the landscape.
Flights over Klamath River provide view of dams set for removal | Klamath | heraldandnews.com
On whitewater raft trips, many sections of the Klamath River rumble through walls of frothing whitewater. But from above the river looks benign, just a tiny thread of water passing through a fractured canyon carved over eons of geologic upheaval.
Salmon numbers in Klamath River fare better for Yurok Tribe after catastrophic losses last year - OPB
Last year, the Yurok Tribe in Northern California faced a catastrophic fish kill. Dead fish were found throughout the Klamath River. This year, the tribe says salmon are faring much better, but concerns remain. We check in with Barry McCovey, Fisheries Department director for the Yurok Tribe, to hear how the fish are doing.
Op-ed: Klamath Basin firefighting resources will remain strong after dam removal | Klamath | heraldandnews.com
Everyone recognizes the Klamath Basin is wildfire country. We don’t take the risk of wildfire lightly. When fires start, particularly when conditions are extreme, catching them early makes all the difference in the world. It is exponentially easier to snuff out a small fire rather than a raging inferno.
In Case You Missed It...
Statement of Forest Service Chief Randy Moore Announcing Pause of Prescribed Fire Operations on National Forest System Lands | US Forest Service
Today, because of the current extreme wildfire risk conditions in the field, I am initiating a pause on prescribed fire operations on National Forest System lands while we conduct a 90-day review of protocols, decision support tools and practices ahead of planned operations this fall.
Klamath River Renewal Corporation Seeks Tribal-Affiliated Businesses, Individuals for Dam Removal Project | Wild Rivers Outpost | Del Norte, Curry Counties
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation and Kiewit, the contractor it hired to spearhead the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the river, is holding a hiring outreach at Yurok Tribal Office in Klamath on Saturday.
The Paradox of Salmon Hatcheries | Hakai Magazine
From their beginnings in the late 19th century, salmon hatcheries have gone from cure to band-aid to crutch. Now, we can’t live without manufactured fish.
