Welcoming Fire at Emerald Earth Sanctuary
About Project Burn
Emerald Earth Sanctuary has been thinking about prescribed burning deeply and critically for quite some time. Vital to their core mission is building and celebrating reciprocal relationships with the natural world.
Project Burn was born out of an interest I shared with members Maya and Abeja to bring local voices together, and encourage a healthy dialogue about the incorporation of fire into their land stewardship efforts.
The residents of Emerald Earth have devised burn plans that give attention to and gather from local insight and precaution. I wanted to take the time to really hone in on those perspectives and compile them in an accessible media series.
Emerald Earth has been integrating prescribed burns as a preventative medicine for the landscape. Throughout 2021, they held site visits in collaboration with Tribal Eco-Restoration Alliance (TERA), Fire Forward of Audubon Burn Association.
Emerald Earth has ignited interest in the larger community with the imperative to adopt practices that have almost been forgotten. To know this land is to be friends with fire, and members of Emerald Earth are investing time in the relationships that support the collective physically, spiritually, and mentally toward resilient forestry.
What is prescribed burning?
Prescribed burns – also known as controlled fire, hazard reduction burns, backfire, swailing, or burn-offs – are fires set intentionally for forest management, farming, ecological restoration, reduction of greenhouse gas emission, and other purposes.
Prescribed burning is often conducted in the cooler, wetter month of the year to reduce the buildup of fuel and decrease the likelihood of an uncontrollable fire.
Prescribed burns fall into two categories . . .
high frequency, low intensity
low frequency, high intensity
. . . and require conditions tailored to the specific site’s environment.
The Pomo Perspective
The Pomo people – the original stewards of the greater Anderson Valley – had a history with intentional fire. During the fall season, Pomos set fires that cleared forest underbrush and controlled the bugs that could infest acorns.
Firefighter, EMT, and Chairman Emeritus of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians Reno Keoni Franklin stands strong for tribal health, urgent policy, and cultural preservation. In the wake of recent catastrophic fires and evacuations, many tribal people across California have experienced brutal consequences with inadequate institutional support. While federally-recognized tribes are included in relief plans – albeit in an often limited way that maintains the settler apparatus of power – they fail to support many non-federally-recognized Native people greatly affected by such loss.
Introduction & Grounding with AÏcha Soukab
While working with Emerald Earth Sanctuary for the winter season, I had the chance to join the community conversation about prescribed burning. As a route of restoring exosystemic health with deep cultural foundations, it’s impossible to approach the topic of prescribed burns without a holistic look at the land and people involved. Project Burn seeks to demystify prescribed burning and share how Emerald Earth is rekindling a relationship with intentional fire.
Intentional fire in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
I am originally from a small, remote village at the foot of the High Atlas called Oulad A’amer, where our livelihood as Indigenous Amazigh peoples is sustained by subsistence agriculture. Ethnobotanical knowledge and cultural traditions are central to village life, and fire is a significant element of this. From my elders, I have learned how fire is a multimodal tool for sustaining our forest’s health, minimizing the likelihood of dangerous wildfires, and keeping hands warm.
There are rich cultural histories behind intentional fire
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have involved fire in their care of the land. “Cultural burning” is a contemporary term used to describe long-standing practices of burning for enhanced land and community health. Native people apply generationally-sustained knowledge and ecologically-sensitive techniques adapted to their ecosystems’ needs. In these ways, intentional burning is a maintenance of not only the land, but of cultural responsibilities.
This cannot be looked at without an acknowledgment of the profound loss and violent trauma of colonial land theft and occupation. The Emerald Earth community, as occupiers of stolen Native land, seeks to tend the embers of ancient knowledge with the purest of hearts and most critically-collaborative of plans.
Keeping hands warm is multifold & longevous
During the winter season, people in my community gather piles of dead leaves, tree limbs, and other debris from the forest to burn. These piles are often burned inside or around homes as a means of providing heat, since our earthen homes are open-air and can get especially cold in the winter.
Burning in Oulad A’amer is an act of sustainability: it understands the needs of the community and land as inseparable. Our hands stay warm, and our forest is rejuvenated. The human and nonhuman ecosystems exist harmoniously, and this is facilitated by fire.
What can you expect from this series?
I spent some time speaking with community members from around the Anderson Valley with a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, roles, and points of entry into the practice of prescribed burning.
Tune into our following posts to hear what they had to share about intentional fire, and how Emerald Earth is honoring community wellness in their approach to prescribed burns.
To find out more information about Prescribed Burning and about Emerald Earth please contact us.
