Pretendianism and the other side of the colonial coin, disenrollment, destroy collectivism and glorify individualism. They are just a couple more ways for settlers to grab land. “If you’re going to identify as an Indigenous person, then show us how you’re Indigenous, based on tribal protocols.”

Something to write up sometime: “Parks, yards, patches, and corridors: How to burn the chaparral”

“We should be thinking about renewal.” youtube.com/watch?v=SSQO...

Creating welcome mats for the grizzly youtu.be/e5ILG_zQFKU?...

You will be visited by three spirits

🔥Preorder and get 20% off here (code S26), shipping date is March 2026: osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/landkee...

"We've lived alongside them for thousands of years," Jason Moody, the father of one of the girls in the school group, and Nuxalk's fisheries and wildlife planning coordinator told CBC News in a Nov. 28 interview. "Our relationship is one of respect, and they're revered and honoured."

In SLO next week www.ksby.com/san-luis-obi...

“We were able to prove with science that this was a thing and it needs to happen again,” Zhaawendaagozikwe said. www.superiortelegram.com/news/local/c...

“When the Indian was on the land, the canopy was open,” said Honorable Ron W. Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe. “In that open space, a variety of plants, bushes, and smaller trees, like oak trees, [grew],…still used today by native tribes for food, medicinal or cultural purposes.”

“Donna Thompson, chairwoman of the Fort Hall Business Council of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, said the measure responds to the federal government’s treaty obligations and supports the preservation of culturally important foods such as camas, bitterroot, wild onions, sage, and chokecherry.”

“The ballet is a story of a young Indigenous firefighter named Nathan whose worldview is transformed after meeting Mothkʷ, a fierce guardian of ancestral knowledge who practices cultural burning. ‘This is not a tale of apocalypse, but of perseverance. Of memory that survives and endures…’”

Here’s a brief and welcome respite from the mantra of don’t-burn-in -SoCal-it’s-not-like-the-Sierra: “Emily Burgueno calls them ‘sovereign burns… grounded in our creation stories, our sacred beliefs and philosophy.’” @nohaggerty.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...

I would love to see the State of California throw its weight behind regenerating a fire-resilient, diverse, open Indigenous cultural landscape, instead of cutting ineffective fuel breaks, lighting bad Rx fires, and fighting CCI and EHL in court. @nohaggerty.bsky.social www.yahoo.com/news/article...

“This marks the first return of cultural burning to the landscape since Tolowa Dee-ni’ were forcibly removed from the area in the 1850s and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park was created in 1929.” kymkemp.com/2025/11/26/c...

Recommend what would work for a lot of species, namely, using fire to create a varied, patch-mosaic landscape with an abundance of food and water for these animals. www.hcn.org/articles/the...

Different burn cycles for different landscapes: every 15 years, or seven years, four years, two years… It depends. infonews.ca/news/7435899...

Song for the times

Wishing for a reference to support this claim: “There is evidence that large amounts of downed dead trees that fall after a burn can increase overall fire intensity in places, and that their removal can reduce those impacts if done properly. But this applies only if the fine fuels are removed.”

“Instead of only fearing and fighting fire, we can befriend it” www.kqed.org/arts/1398372...

To those who say, “clearing brush will not prevent wildfire in SoCal,” the main purpose of cultural fire in SoCal is not to protect houses & wilderness, it’s to produce food & materials, and to conserve animal habitat & water. But a tended landscape is also a less dangerous place for houses.

“This is a really comfortable, relaxing experience.” youtu.be/ZgnCX9aBe4U?...

“‘When we’re using fire on the landscape, you could really think about it more as a form of agriculture, said Diego Cordero. ‘After these big fires here in the hills, you see flowers you probably hadn’t seen in decades popping up everywhere. A lot of those plants are actually our crops.’”

I’m pleased to share that a book I’ve coedited, *Landkeeping: Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Partnerships* is now available for preorder everywhere books are sold—including at the OSU Press website, where the promo code S26 will extend a 20% discount and free shipping to you.

Good advice for all generations: “Log off and act.” www.yahoo.com/news/article...

“Blueberries, much like the red pine, really thrive in the presence of fire. It rejuvenates them.” www.wpr.org/news/prescri...

“The line from forest management to monthly mortgage payments is direct. When we talk about wildfire, we should be talking about air quality, home affordability, and health.” open.substack.com/pub/drlennec...

"There's a lot of traditional medicines up on this land, this is where they collect acorns, this is where their medicine grows, their food grows… So for them to… lead the way in stewarding this plan, helps them to meet not only the ecological needs up here, but the cultural needs as well."

Burning down to the creek, 2023

”Keeping Indigenous fire traditions alive isn’t just about caring for the land and preventing out-of-control wildfires… “Co-ordinating with other communities on the issue is also helping assert Indigenous sovereignty, ‘upholding our jurisdiction, and practicing our rights,’ said Justin Kane…”

I have at least two issues with this article: 1) I don’t see any quotations of Indigenous fire stewards and 2) the oft repeated FRI of 30 to 150 years does not apply to all of Southern California. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Insights into humanities research at the Huntington: forests, plant migration, aquatic cultures, Jane Austen, maps of memory and resistance, writing the future, etc www.huntington.org/news/haven-h...

Had a great visit to Teakettle. We can bring it back.

The RTRL program funds Tribal work with non-Tribal partners throughout a Tribe’s ancestral homelands.

“Despite receiving less than 40 cents for every federal dollar spent on national forests, tribes are restoring forest health and reducing tree mortality. Their success is rooted in thousands of years of stewardship and a willingness to act where federal policy too often stalls.”

How to recover from overfishing in Madagascar: build new reefs, invest in education, create new sources of income and food, like climate-adapted agriculture in a deforested landscape. www.vox.com/climate/4650...

Following up on Greg Weaver’s Fresnoland article on Teakettle, this podcast mentions “Tribal burn collaboratives,” but there’s another story or two yet to be reported about the Sierra-Sequoia Burn Cooperative’s continuing ties to Teakettle. open.spotify.com/episode/7he5... @fresnoland.bsky.social

An Indigenous Takeover of the Met: “Modeegaadi’s dancers flit across landscapes by Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, and their peers, calling to the fallen bison—and calling out to the viewer: Did you think these lands were born empty?” www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

“reviving the historic Oceti Sakowin trade network, a historic alliance of seven Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Indigenous groups united by kinship, language and spiritual beliefs.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Great article by Jaclyn Moyer, from the emerald ash borer to the “intestines” and “macramé” of floodplain hydrology to fish to fire ecology to Indigenous culture, land, and genocide. www.hcn.org/issues/57-10...

A classic! youtu.be/BsbToWGOr74?...

Spent a few days in beautiful Tulare County, where I saw, heard, and got to do some amazing things

Detailed reporting here on the Plumas Community Protection Plan, along with complaints about Trump’s Forest Service giving “short shrift to reporters’ questions.” But no mention of area Tribes (Greenville, Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Enterprise, Mooretown, Susanville, Konkow Band, Washoe, and others).

“collaborators were awarded over $5M to launch a prescribed fire across 3,300 acres…it would have been a key demonstration to show that planned fires can burn safely at a large scale…The groups were scheduled to start building fire breaks in September…But then the Garnet Fire ignited Aug. 24…”

“Hellexico,” one of my old hangouts 😂

What happens when a critical sector like forestry, the backbone of so many rural communities in western Canada, is no longer viable or sustainable because so much standing and future volume has been lost to wildfires? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is the logical endgame for landgrab universities.

How would you like your smoke? I’m wondering where the wood comes from for these restaurants and whether SF would have less wildfire smoke if everyone cooked with wood. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Three burns: Back in July, the Butler Fire incident management team supported Karuk cultural burners and a community prescribed fire crew as they successfully conducted burns and protected homes in the path of the wildfire.