For millennia, many tribes across North America used fire to promote valued resources. Sharing our collective understanding of fire effects and fire management strategies, derived from both traditional and western knowledge systems, can benefit landscapes and communities.

In this webinar, Frank Lake, Research Ecologist with the Pacific Southwest Research Station presented findings from the 2014 Crafting Solutions for Wildland and Prescribed Fires Across Tribal and Nontribal Jurisdictions workshop and the 2012 Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire workshop to investigate how traditional and western knowledge can be used to enhance wildland fire and fuels management and research. The workshops engaged tribal members, managers, and researchers to identify challenges and formulate solutions regarding cross-jurisdictional work, fuel reduction strategies, and wildland fire management and research involving lands important to tribes. A key conclusion from the workshops is that successful management of wildland fire and fuels requires collaborative partnerships that share traditional and western fire knowledge through culturally sensitive consultation, coordination, and communication for building trust. Dr. Lake presented a framework for developing these partnerships based on workshop discussions.

This webinar reviews key findings summarized in the Returning Fire to the Land article (see Related Documents) in a recent Journal of Forestry special issue on Tribal Forestry and Wildland fires.

A downloadable file of webinar slides is available in the Files block.