A new bill has made it out of legislature and landed on Governor Newsom’s desk for signing. AB 642 would streamline the process for cultural and prescribed burns to better manage the wildfire fuel load.
Conservation scientists and land managers are increasingly realizing that a regimen of prescribed burning—the practice of using smaller, controlled fires to eliminate excessive fuel—is an important forest management tool. - Save The Redwoods
The Native practice of lighting and tending fires reduces the fuel load helping to prevent massive wildfires but it also helps regenerate the soil, help preserve much-needed biological diversity and protect food sources for wildlife. Instead of merely adopting the prescribed burn practices, this bill mandates that Tribal leaders would be an active part of developing, teaching and implementing the strategies.
Section 6 reads “The director shall appoint a cultural burning liaison who shall do all of the following:
(a) Advise the department on developing increased cultural burning activity.
(b) Engage with California Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural fire practitioners, as defined in Section 4002.6, on opportunities to partner with the department.
(c) Make recommendations to the director on ways to reduce barriers to cultural burning, as defined in Section 4002.4.
(d) Serve on the State Fire Marshal’s State Board of Fire Services, as established by Article 2 (commencing with Section 13140) of Chapter 1 of Part 2 of Division 12 of the Health and Safety Code.
(e) Work with unit chiefs across the state to ensure prescribed fire and cultural burning objectives are understood and supported by the department.”
Section 9 of the bill states “The department shall actively engage California Native American tribes, tribal organizations, cultural fire practitioners... When engaging with Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural fire practitioners, the department shall respect tribal sovereignty, customs, and culture.” Cultural fire practitioner is defined in the bill as “a person associated with a California Native American tribe or tribal organization with experience in burning to meet cultural goals or objectives, including for subsistence, ceremonial activities, biodiversity, or other benefits.”
“In many Native American cultures, all beings, be they a bear, a tree, or a human, have a gift, And one of the gifts of humans is the ability to use fire creatively. “So the use of fire is understood to be responsibility for caring for the land, not controlling it,” Kimmerer said. “It is something that we are supposed to do to keep the land healthy.” — Jane Palmer, Science Writer EOS
For further reading about Native American cultural burn practices:
What Tribes Have Known All Along
Fire As Medicine
Rethinking Wildfire
If you are a California resident, please consider voicing your support for AB 642 to Governor Newsom at leg.unit@gov.ca.gov