are getting back to traditional Native American fire management in a project with the U.S. Forest Service in Northern California.
The two groups will host a controlled burn near the Lower Klamath River as part of the Somes Bar project.鈥淔ire is a tool for us, we鈥檝e been using it for centuries,鈥� said David Medford Rubalcaba told the 老夫子传媒 Exchange. Rubalcaba heads the Karuk Tribe鈥檚 Integrated Fire and Fuels Management Program.
He says managing forests through controlled burns has long been part of Native American tradition. They鈥檙e sometimes called 鈥渃ultural burns.鈥�
鈥淲e believe the flames are our relatives,鈥� Rubalcaba said.鈥� They're our brothers and sisters. We have that personal relationship with fire.鈥�
Cultural burns ceased when the U.S. government implemented its own fire management plan that included suppressing fires.
Now, with new research showing that the forests need fire to clear thick brush, the Karuk Tribe can return to traditional burns.
Rubalcaba says the tribe will begin the Somes Bar shortly.
