In California, a state increasingly beset by devastating wildfires, the Karuk Tribe will be able to freely set controlled burns, helping to clear the dense underbrush that fuels larger and more destructive fires.
Before Europeans arrived to the region, the Karuk would undertake some 7,000 burns each year on their lands along the Klamath River in northern California. Burns could be applied to a single tree or spread across many acres, and were administered ceremonially and to shape the landscape.
The need for such burns is clear, tribal official Bill Tripp told The Los Angeles Times: “One: You don’t have major wildfire threats because everything around you is burned regularly. Two: Most of the plants and animals that we depend on in the ecosystem are actually fire-dependent species.”
Until recently, tribes would need to secure permits for cultural burns, but a law passed last year allows federally recognized tribes to forge agreements with the state that allow them to administer burns without prior approval. This week the Karuk became the first tribe to reach such an agreement.
Controlled burns are “a real big part of our cultural identity and who we are,” tribal official Aja Conrad recently told Boise State Public Radio. “It’s about how to steward this place. It’s about actively, physically tending to this place and rebuilding these sacred relationships.”
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