For millennia, Indigenous peoples have used fire as a vital tool for land stewardship, fostering biodiversity, healthy forests, and resilient ecosystems. In 1850, however, California criminalized cultural burning as part of broader efforts to suppress Indigenous practices, and eventually the state practiced a policy of complete fire suppression. The consequences of this history have been devastating and have even contributed to catastrophic wildfires that are now more frequent than ever. In recent years, California has begun to reckon with these wrongdoings and recognize the value of fire on the landscape. Senate Bill 310, sponsored by the Karuk Tribe and currently awaiting the Governor’s signature, aims to break down barriers to cultural burning by acknowledging Tribal sovereignty and fostering collaboration between Tribal governments and state agencies. This legislation is a vital step toward restoring forest health, building resilience, and advancing both cultural and environmental justice.
Cultural burning, a practice central to Indigenous cultures and land stewardship, was criminalized by California in 1850, a history contributing to today’s wildfire crisis. A new bill in California, sponsored by the Karuk Tribe and awaiting the Governor’s signature, supports breaking down barriers to cultural burning to restore landscape resilience and honor tribal sovereignty. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eTmWtYET
We have a solution... just need finance. We would love to enhance cultural fire management practices.
Eventually, we'll begin to think through many other embedded practices among cultural burning as a suite of bioregenerative stewardships. Some of the ones that come to mind: Trees & relational sets nursery & seed storage (not enough squirrels and other animals anymore to do the work), local contextual worm and decomposer farming (centipedes are a big contributor to breaking down biomatter for worms, along with other bugs), arsenic removal farming (pill bugs are uniquely adapted for this), native bee apiaries & pollinator beds & corridoring, Adobe mud-composite homes w/ shale roofing as local contextual sourcing, and more.
Community Volunteer Ambassador | American University Honors Graduate, B.A. in Political Science and Sustainability
6moSo important! Hope this bill goes through!