The Importance of Good Fire
- Nicole Wang
- Sep 3, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 6, 2020
By Nicole Wang
A firefighter manages the boundary of an indigenous prescribed burn near Weitchpec, California, during a fire training exchange in October. PHOTOGRAPH: KILIII YÜYAN
California has suffered its fourth consecutive summer of blazing wildfires. The fires burned 1.4 million acres, destroyed over 1,000 buildings, killed seven people, and caused 77,000 to evacuate. Even as people return to their hazy homes, the fire season will continue for weeks.
For 40 years, climate change has been increasing the number of extreme weather incidents. Wildfires, in particular, accelerate global warming even more by releasing plumes of CO₂ and heat. The good news is that government officials are moving toward more sustainable, long-term solutions. What is interesting is that this solution is not new, but very, very old. To understand how to properly suppress giant wildfires like the ones seen this summer, we must look to the roots of fire-prevention. We must understand the work of the native people, the effect of colonization, and the use of ‘good fire.’
Indigenous People: Original Protectors of the Forest
It is important to realize that some fires can be healthy and beneficial. The ideology that “fire is medicine” echoes through generations of native people. For 13,000 years, native tribes such as the Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, Miwok, and Chumash have been burning small intentional blazes in California and the rest of the world. In Northern California, a drip torch is used by trained experts to turn the green scenery into red and then black (Cagle). But not to worry, as the black soot is soon replaced by bear grass and huckleberries, two of the many plants are one of many intertwined in the lives of nearby tribes. These plants breathe traditions and they were once buried deep under dry vegetation and blackberry branches before the ‘good fire’ burning.
For generations, natives have supported the forest’s regenerative process with this method. As good fire spreads, new plants are coaxed to grow as the flames eat at older vegetation, thinning it out and creating an ecosystem less vulnerable to wildfires. If let alone, that dry material acts as fuel, making them blazes harder to control. Yet, indigenous people do not only use the methods for fire-prevention. The process of good fire renews local foods and medicines, removes harmful invasive plants, and gives animals new, nutrient-rich habitat. The practice is used all around the world by native tribes as a contribution to the symbiotic relationship between them and their surroundings. No matter the reason, it is evident that native people have a thorough understanding that fire is necessary to tend to and care for the wildlife in the forest and themselves. Their attentiveness to their surroundings has led to the development of fire-prevention methods that not only prevent damage before it starts but also leaves the land better than it was before.
The Effect of Colonization
In 1850, the U.S. government passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, outlawing intentional burning methods in the Californian Area (Cagle). In replacement, government agencies (with very limited ecological understanding) adapted a sort of fear of fire, making sure to suppress every blaze found in forests. Their understanding was putting out small and big fires alike would end light burning and bring new, great forests. Yet, the opposite is true; suppressing fires allows dry vegetation to build and slows the regrowth of newer, healthier biodiversity.
“When you have colonization removing native people, disrupting that social structure around fire use, outlawing fire, and then actively using every construct in a militaristic way to suppress and exclude fires, then we have the conditions that we have now,” said Frank Lake, U.S. Forest research ecologist belonging to the Karuk and Yurok nations.
The tricky part about prescribed fire is finding out the exact moment to burn them. This is called the ‘burn window’. For years, Karuk and Yurok tribes have been working with Nature Conservancy’s Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) to train people from all around the world to be firelighters instead of firefighters. They are trained to monitor the land and assess where and when light fires should be lit and they take their job very seriously.
The problem is good fire programs have a hard time getting enough funds to fully analyze the land. A lot of people still fear fire and report flames when they see it, no matter big or small. Others are concerned about carbon release from good fire burning. However, there is no reason to worry. In the past ten years of Trex burns, no one has had to fight a fire (Cagle). If the small fires grow a bit too big, then they are immediately hit with a shot of water. Additionally, carbon from the prescribed burning sequesters to the ground after burning. Unlike when large wildfires release the same carbon into the air in mass amounts.
Most importantly, though, the return of this practice has brought back tradition to native tribes. Before the Yurok art of basket-weaving was dying because the young bear grass shoots used to make them were covered with pine trees and blackberry branches. Weevils and Sudden Oak Death infected the dense conifer forest floor, making it susceptible to high-intensity burning. Now, the ancient art is regaining traction due to prescribed burning clearing out impurities. The tradition carries on as Rick O’Rourke, fire and fuel manager of the Yurok uses a drip torch to light small lines of fire as an extension of himself and his lineage. The suppression of the native tribes all over the world slowly chips away as Elizabeth Azzuzz, secretary of the Cultural Fire Management Council, teaches the new generation of good fire practicers. In an interview with the Guardian, Rick O’Rourke stated, “Our first agreement with our creator was to tend the land. It was taken away from us, and now we’re trying to reclaim it.”
The Californian Wildfires of 2020 symbolize the importance of listening to the wisdom of the people native to the land. The land most affected by the fires belongs to and is home to these people. In order to combat climate change, we need to treat all humans as equals and work together to save our planet.
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