“Rethinking Wildfire: Cultural Burning, the Art of Not Fighting Fire”
From the Nominator
For thousands of years, Native Americans in what is now California and across the West treated and nurtured fire like the natural resource it is through the practice of cultural burning. For non-Native people, cultural burns require a mental adjustment—one that views fire as restorative, not destructive. This is fire lighting, not firefighting.
As wildfires burn bigger, hotter, and more frequently each year, state and local agencies, groups, and landowners are increasingly looking to Native people—the original land managers—for guidance on living with fire.
In early 2020, students and faculty from the University of California, Davis, partnered with regional tribes to take part in cultural burns in Northern California as part of a UC Davis Native American studies course called “Keepers of the Flame.”
The writer of this feature story accompanied the class to two of those burns to tell the story of how fire can be used to enhance and restore, not just destroy. Both science and native knowledge records the benefits of low severity fire to plants, watersheds, and people. But while prescribed burns intend to prevent worse fires, cultural burns intend to restore life. This story intends to help readers understand the distinction—and what that mindshift means for many Native people in the state, who have historically been left out of state fire management discussions—as we move forward into hotter, drier fire seasons ahead.
From the Judges
Excellent use of your magazine to study something timely and meaningful. Also good use of limited resources in producing such a good work.