Fire Culture Shift: Proposed Legislation Will Reduce Prescribed Fire Barriers

Caroline Griffith, EcoNews Journalist

In the aftermath of the catastrophic wildfires of 2020, there was a lot of talk about intentionally returning fire to the landscape and using prescribed burning to bring ecosystems back into balance. Articles abounded about using fire to reduce fuel loading and make the land more resilient to “mega-fires.” But even as public opinion was shifting and more people were coming around to the idea of prescribed burning, especially the cultural burning practices of Tribes and cultural fire practitioners, significant barriers remained. Those who have been practicing these burns for decades have been calling for policy changes, and it seems that legislators finally listened and introduced a set of bills to the California legislature that could open the door to practices which can start bringing the forest ecosystem back into balance.

In response to the wildfires of 2020, which burned over 4% of California, the Karuk Tribe, along with partner agencies and organizations, released the report Good Fire, Current Barriers to the Expansion of Cultural Burning and Prescribed Fire in California and Recommended Solutions, explicitly detailing the issues with the current regulatory process for prescribed fire and suggesting policy changes. At the heart of Good Fire is the issue of tribal sovereignty and the ability of Tribes to take the actions they see as necessary to steward the land, such as engaging in cultural burning practices, while being supported and recognized by the state agencies that regulate those activities. Many of the suggested solutions are included in Assembly Bill 642, introduced in February 2021 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman and co-authored by Assemblymember Jim Wood, and Senate Bill 332, introduced by Senator Bill Dodd.

Klamath Fire Ecology Symposium participants review the effects of a prescribed burn in the Orleans Valley to improve a tan oak food grove and other species, like this evergreen huckleberry that will bear more fruit following the burn. Photo by Jenny Staats.

AB 642 is an omnibus fire prevention bill that changes current law to support cultural and prescribed fire. It mandates the creation of a Cultural Burning Liaison at the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), and requires a proposal for creating a prescribed fire training center in California so more people can become certified burn bosses. It would also require the State Fire Marshal and the Cultural Burning Liaison to develop a streamlined process to certify members of Native American tribes with cultural burning experience as burn bosses to recognize and account for that experience. As Good Fire states, “Many practitioners lament the lack of knowledge of the landscape, ecology, and culture of place by agency personnel, yet, those personnel are empowered to burn, while cultural fire practitioners are excluded.” AB 642 would change that. Though, as Will Harling, Executive Director of the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council points out, the devil is in the details. Harling, who is an advocate of cultural burning, says that advocates want those training centers to operate in partnership with tribes who have the historical knowledge to bring fire back to the landscape, whereas CAL FIRE seems to be pushing to site the new training center at McClellan Air Force Base, keeping prescribed fire in the hands of the paramilitary fire-fighting industry.

Additionally, AB 642 will require CAL FIRE to engage with Tribes when hiring and recruiting for fuel reduction experts; require it to “actively engage with those entities, relevant California State Universities, Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural practitioners to enhance its public education efforts regarding restoring fire processes and function, and cultural burning”; and directs the State Air Resources Board to develop guidance and policies specifically related to prescribed burns, including developing and deploying an automated system for issuing burn permits. The text of the bill states, “Partnering with Native American tribes, tribal organizations, and cultural practitioners to expand the practice of cultural burnings upon landscape provides an opportunity to restore landscape resilience while preserving Native American cultural identity and also improving forest health, ecosystem abundance, maintaining species diversity, and decreasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.”

SB 332, which goes hand-in-hand with AB 642, would “provide that a certified burn boss and a private landowner upon whose property a certified burn boss performs, supervises, or oversees a prescribed burn are not liable for damage or injury to property or persons that is caused by a prescribed burn authorized by law unless the prescribed burn was conducted in a grossly negligent manner.” This opens the way for landowners and entities without prescribed burn insurance (which is prohibitively expensive, hard to get, and is one of the leading prohibitors to prescribed burning) to become burn bosses and perform burns on their land. It would do this by changing the liability for those who follow specific guidelines for burning, namely that burn is “for the purpose of wildland fire hazard reduction, ecological maintenance and restoration, cultural burning, silviculture, or agriculture, and that a certified burn boss review and approve a written prescription for the burn”. Another policy change advocated by Harling would be to create a state-backed insurance fund for burn bosses, similar to what exists for police or fire departments, that recognizes burning as a necessary public service and treats it as such.

As Margo Robbins, Executive Director of Cultural Fire, an organization whose mission is to facilitate the practice of cultural burning on the Yurok Reservation and Ancestral lands, said laughing, “They went out of their way to get our input and actually did stuff with it.” She acknowledged, however, “It’s a drop in the bucket. The tide is changing, but it's still the beginning of the tide change. The actual work itself is happening.” Robbins and Cultural Fire lead Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX) to train firefighters from around the country about cultural burning. These TREX burns involve walking the land, learning the plants and talking about the benefits of burning. “It’s more than just burning brush,” Robbins says. “It allows us to continue our culture.”

As of press time, both bills were still in committee and Robbins and Harling acknowledged that they would need a lot of grassroots support to pass, especially SB 332 which is opposed by the powerful insurance industry. As Robbins said, “Wildfire is an indicator of a system out of balance. Prescribed burns are one of the biggest solutions. This land evolved from fire, it needs fire. It’s a necessary part of the ecosystem and everybody needs to get on board to bring it back.”