Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Background
1.1.1. Prescribed Fire History
1.1.2. Fire Policies and Programs
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Wildfire Suppression and Underfunding Constrain Prescribed Fire Expansion
3.2. Cultural Fire Expansion in the Mid-Klamath Watershed
3.3. Indigenous and Decentralized Fire Governance
4. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Actions Taken or Proposed (in italics) to Alleviate Constraint by Entity | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Prescribed Fire Constraints | Karuk and Yurok Tribes | USFS | CAL FIRE | NGOs |
NEPA & CEQA | Developed cultural resource specialist positions to support NEPA process; Partner with public agencies | Interdisciplinary NEPA teams more collaborative; Partner with Tribes; Streamlining NEPA for prescribed fire; Hire more specialists | Programmatic Environmental Impact Review (California Vegetation Treatment Program); Partner with Tribes and property owners; Hire more specialists | Partner with public agencies and Tribes; Specialists volunteer to support CEQA process |
Air Quality Permits | Partner with air quality management districts; Developing independent air quality agencies within Tribal governments | Partnered with and improved relationships with California Air Resources Board and air quality management districts; formed Interagency Air and Smoke Council | Beginning to partner with California Air Resources Board and air quality management districts | Some NGOs have good communication with air quality management districts, whereas others are working to develop positive relationships. |
Burn Bans | Fostering relationships with CAL FIRE and USFS to streamline and devolve permitting | Reduce risk averse mindset in upper management | Reduce risk averse mindset in upper management | Opposing statewide burn bans; Advocating for devolution of permitting |
Wildland Fire Personnel | Developed Tribal wildland fire teams, volunteer and family-based burns (Indigenous Peoples Burn Network) | Participation in TREX; Interagency personnel collaboration; Increase permanent wildland fire teams; Increase overtime for prescribed fire | Increasing permanent wildland fire teams for prescribed fire; Work collaboratively with Indigenous and local leadership | Creating independent prescribed fire teams; Establishing volunteer prescribed burn associations; Partnering with agencies and Tribes |
Financial Resources | Advocating for more funds from government and private funders | Legislated new budgetary process for wildfire; Applying for more collaborative grants; Increase budget appropriations for prescribed fire | State is allocating more funding for prescribed fire each year | Greater access to grants through collaborative projects; Volunteer Prescribed Burn Associations; Advocating for more funds from government agencies and local tax measures |
Land Access | Collaborating with public agencies to co-manage public lands; Repatriating federal and privately owned lands in ancestral territories | Establishing land co-management agreements with Tribes and NGOs; Return neglected lands to Tribes | Establishing land co-management agreements with Tribes and NGOs; Return neglected lands to Tribes | Collaborating with public land agencies for shared stewardship of lands; Establishing co-management agreements with Tribes; Return lands to Tribes |
Liability and Risk Aversion | Hiring personnel with expertise in prescribed fire; Increasing Tribal expertise in prescribed fire | Social media presence, newspaper articles, outreach to NGOs and schools; Successful high-profile burns | Considering state-backed insurance; Assume liability for vegetation management/treatment program burns. Property owner outreach | Advocating for state-backed insurance for prescribed fire; Successful burns; Property owner outreach |
Collaborative Prescribed Fire Program | Agency Participation (%) |
---|---|
Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX) | 64 |
CAL FIRE programs | 63 |
California Fire Safe Council | 41 |
Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership | 20 |
Tribal Forest Protection Act | 9 |
California Department of Fish and Wildlife | 7 |
Other | 32 |
Affiliation | Burn Area (ha) | Personnel (Individuals) | Personnel (h) | Personnel h ha−1 | Fuel (L ha−1) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
USFS (n = 7) | 12.6 (8.0) | 23.1 (4.6) | 222.8 (71.1) | 40.5 (4.5) | 17.0 (2.3) |
TREX (n = 19) | 7.0 (2.2) | 23.7 (1.3) | 213.2 (39.8) | 64.8 (13.1) | 17.8 (2.6) |
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Marks-Block, T.; Tripp, W. Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships. Fire 2021, 4, 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030037
Marks-Block T, Tripp W. Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships. Fire. 2021; 4(3):37. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030037
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarks-Block, Tony, and William Tripp. 2021. "Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships" Fire 4, no. 3: 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030037
APA StyleMarks-Block, T., & Tripp, W. (2021). Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships. Fire, 4(3), 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030037