Fears of wildfires grow as more intense and dangerous burnings occur. However, what if there was a need for more wildfires for our environment? We spoke with Dr. Melinda Adams to learn more about the significance of fires in our ecosystems and the practice of cultural burning through Indigenous efforts to restore ecosystems. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/regenerating-our-ecosystems-with-good-fire-with-dr-melinda-adams/.
North America is no stranger to wildfires. As of August 15, 2024, 29,917 fires this year have burned more than 5.2 million acres, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. While this year’s number of wildfires is below the annual average of 35,691, the yearly acres burned is above the average of 3.8 million acres of the past 10 years.
While wildfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon, their frequency is heavily influenced by climate change, especially on the west coast of the United States. Wildfire risk increases depending on a number of factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other fuel. Additionally, climate change dries out organic matter or “fuel” in forests, resulting in a doubling of the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. As climate change creates warmer and drier weather conditions, wildfires will likely become more frequent; studies show that an average annual warming of one degree celsius would increase the median burned area per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests.
Ultimately, as temperatures warm globally and drier conditions ravage the country, these fires will spread farther and become harder and harder to extinguish.
As the planet warms, many have turned to ancient methods to mitigate the effects of climate change. Notably, Dr. Adams borrows the concept of “good” fires from Native American cultural fires practices, where low intensity fires are lit to heal the surrounding ecosystem. In order to positively change the public’s relationship with fire, fire agencies in California and Native American tribes have started using this term. Generally, “good” or cultural fires not only restore degraded soils and decrease vegetation or fuel overgrowth, but also deepen the spiritual ties people have to the land they inhabit. Specifically, good fire increases organic matter, keeps soil surfaces vegetated through the regrowth of plants, and encourages biodiversity.
In California, many ecosystems rely on fire for its regenerative powers. Dr. Adams notes that fire connects to water, soil health, and the health of animals and surrounding areas. It can also mitigate invasive species growth and eliminate harmful pests that are killing a lot of trees, making them more susceptible to catching fire and starting larger forest fires. As a result, fire promotes many benefits for ecosystem health.
Dr. Adams writes that as a member of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe, she maintains a sacred attachment to the land, and believes that humans and the Earth are relatives. Subsequently, as siblings, humans and the land must help each other survive. Following these teachings around our relationship to more-than-human sibling and reciprocity, “good” fire participants can achieve “futurity” (intergenerational exchanges) that will safeguard future protection of the environment and human communities. Listening to these Native American Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) could lead the way to developing a more sustainable relationship to the planet and, in doing so, mitigate the effects of climate change.
The concept of “good” fire stems from Indigenous Matriarchal Ecology. Many Native American tribes are matriarchal, such as the Cherokee and the Navajo. Applying traditionally “matriarchal” values such as care, tenderness, and love to environmental conservation could be an effective climate change solution. Inclusivity and the centering of Indigenous women’s knowledge can also allow opportunities to enhance plant and soil health, remediation, and rematriation of the quality of our plant and soilscapes to provide a prosperous support structure that enables ecosystems to thrive.
By practicing Indigenous Matriarchal Ecology, cultural fire participants can collectively start seeing the Earth as a Mother: one who gives life and receives it in return. This is why Dr. Adams and her colleagues focus on the role the soil can play in the fight against climate change through the practice of Matriarchal Ecology. Dr. Adams writes that applying a soil health approach to ecology in tandem with cultural fires can play an important role in climate mitigation by storing carbon and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. By restoring degraded soils and adopting soil conservation practices, such as cultural fire and Indigenous Matriarchal Ecologies, “good” fire practitioners can enhance the Earth’s carbon sequestration capacity and build resilience to climate change. Furthermore, these soil improvements on formerly mined and degraded lands could make soilscapes more resilient to erosion and desertification, while maintaining vital ecosystem services. And hopefully, these practitioners can inspire others, non-Native and Native alike, to develop a better understanding of and relationships with the planet.
Indigenous Matriarchal Ecologies can highlight the positive effects of cultural fire on environmentally degraded soils, while simultaneously building native plant and soil resilience toward climate and cultural futurity that all communities can enjoy.
Dr. Melinda Adams is a member of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science at the University of Kansas. A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, her research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire with Tribes in California and more recently with Tribes in the Midwest. Her work with Indigenous communities combines environmental science, environmental policy, and Indigenous studies methodologies.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit https://climatebreak.org/regenerating-our-ecosystems-with-good-fire-with-dr-melinda-adams/.
Ethan: I’m Ethan Elkind, and this is Climate Break. Climate solutions in a hurry. Today’s proposal, the benefits of using “good fire,” not only for fire prevention, but also for ecosystem regeneration. Dr. Melinda Adams, cultural fire practitioner and assistant professor at the University of Kansas shares what “good fire” is.
Dr. Adams: So in order to build or rebuild a relationship with fire and public perception, fire agencies and tribes are using this term “good fire.” And, generally, it is a purposely placed prescribed or controlled burn to mitigate against the fuel buildup, um, vegetation overgrowth of our forested areas.
Ethan: But the benefits of “good fire” go beyond that of fire prevention, as Dr. Adams explains.
Dr. Adams: In California, many fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems relied on fire for that regenerative health that it introduces, both historically and currently, so lots of forested areas, montane savannas, meadows, all of those ecosystems. And California is rich in biodiversity and fire has a big part to play in that richness. Fire connects to water, it connects to soil health, it connects to the health of animals and surrounding areas. And it has some good benefits in limiting invasive species growth or mitigating it, or treating harmful pests, the ones that are killing a lot of trees. So fire promotes a lot of good things within the ecosystem health.
Ethan: That was Dr. Melinda Adams. You can learn more about “good fire” at climatebreak.com.