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The Northern Rockies Fire Science Network (NRFSN) works in the ancestral territories of Tribal Nations in the Rocky Mountains, where lands far beyond reservation boundaries are important for cultural practices and ceremonies. Since time immemorial, Tribal communities have used fire to enhance valued resources and ecosystems. However, there are many challenges to managing fire for tribal resources, especially across jurisdictions. The resources on this page address the various aspects of integrating traditional and western knowledge to manage wildland fire and fuels.

The NRFSN strives to promote communication, collaboration, and shared learning in the larger wildland fire community to support tribal land managers in co-managing these ecosystems for generations to come. We urge those interested in the Northern Rockies to take time to learn about the history, treaties, and culture of the Tribes within the area where you live, work, or visit.

This hot topic was developed in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, the Pacific Southwest Research Station, and the Pacific Northwest Region of the USDA Forest Service.

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Recorded Webinars

Publications

Reconnecting fire culture of aboriginal communities with contemporary wildfire risk management
Amos Atkinson et al.

Expert knowledge, collaborative concepts, and universal nature: naming the place of Indigenous knowledge within a public-sector cultural burning program
Jessica K. Weir

An Assessment of American Indian Forestry Research, Information Needs, and Priorities
Michael J. Dockry et al.

Keepers of the flame: supporting the revitalization of Indigenous cultural burning
Chris Adlam et al.

Persuasion without policies: the work of reviving Indigenous peoples’ fire management in southern Australia
Will Smith et al.
Indigenous fire stewardship: Federal/Tribal partnerships for wildland fire research and management
Frank K. Lake
Native American fire management at an ancient wildland-urban interface in the Southwest United States
Christopher I. Roos et al.
The importance of Indigenous cultural burning in forested regions of the Pacific West, USA
Jonathan Long et al.
Conservation of Earth’s biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship
Kira M. Hoffman et al.
Wildfire and climate change adaptation of western North American forests: a case for intentional management
Paul F. Hessburg et al.

Indigenous knowledge and seasonal calendar inform adaptive savanna burning in northern Australia
Michelle McKemey et al.
Integrating tribes and culture into public land management
David Flores et al.
Indigenous fire management: a conceptual model from literature
William Nikolakis et al.
A review of Indigenous knowledge and participation in environmental monitoring
Kim-Ly Thompson et al.
Integrating tribes and culture Into public land management [Chapter 5.5]
David Flores et al.
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research: a literature review
David P. M. Lam et al.
Goal setting and Indigenous fire management: a holistic perspective
William Nikolakis et al.

We’re Not Doing Enough Prescribed Fire in the Western United States to Mitigate Wildfire Risk
Crystal A. Kolden
Traditional knowledge of fire use by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in the eastside Cascades of Oregon
Michelle M. Steen-Adams et al.
Indigenous fire stewardship
Frank K. Lake et al.
Out of the Ashes: Ecological Resilience to Extreme Wildfire, Prescribed Burns, and Indigenous Burning in Ecosystems
Cristina Eisenberg et al.
Getting back to fire suméŝ: exploring a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporating traditional knowledge into fuels treatments
Monique D. Wynecoop et al.
Sharing Multiple Perspectives on Burning: Towards a Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Policy in Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana
Bibiana A. Bilbao et al.
Spatiotemporal variability of human-fire interactions on the Navajo Nation
Christopher H. Guiterman et al.

Indigenous impacts on North American Great Plains fire regimes of the past millennium
Christopher I. Roos et al.
When Scientists “Discover” What Indigenous People Have Known For Centuries
George Nicholas
A Global Analysis of Hunter-Gatherers, Broadcast Fire Use, and Lightning-Fire-Prone Landscapes
Michael R. Coughlan et al.

A Special Issue of the Journal of Forestry—Tribal Forest Management: Innovations for Sustainable Forest Management
Michael J. Dockry et al.
Returning fire to the land - Celebrating traditional knowledge and fire
Frank K. Lake et al.
Participatory geographic information systems as an organizational platform for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge in contemporary fire and fuels management
Brooke Baldauf McBride et al.

Weaving Indigenous and sustainability sciences to diversify our methods
Jay T. Johnson et al.
Opportunities to utilize traditional phenological knowledge to support adaptive management of social-ecological systems vulnerable to changes in climate and fire regimes
Christopher A. Armatas et al.
Taking Fire: Understandings of Indigenous Burning and Environmental Politics in Australia and the United States, 1910-2015
Daniel May

Social science research on Indigenous wildfire management in the 21st century and future research needs
Amy Christianson
Traditional fire-use, landscape transition, and the legacies of social theory past
Michael R. Coughlan
Forest site classification for cultural plant harvest by tribal weavers can inform management
Susan S. Hummel et al.

Fire and tribal cultural resources
Frank K. Lake et al.
Spraycan: A PPGIS for capturing imprecise notions of place
J. J. Huck et al.

Historical and cultural fires, tribal management and research issues in Northern California: trails, fires and tribulations
Frank K. Lake
Culture, law, risk and governance: contexts of traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation
Terry Williams et al.
Aboriginal precedent for active management of sagebrush-perennial grass communities in the Great Basin
Kent J. McAdoo et al.
Cultural impacts to tribes from climate change influences on forests
Garrett Voggesser et al.
The many elements of traditional fire knowledge: synthesis, classification, and aids to cross-cultural problem solving in fire-dependent systems around the world
Mary R. Huffman
Rethinking the study of landscape management practices among hunter–gatherers in North America
Kent G. Lightfoot et al.

Listening and learning from traditional knowledge and western science: a dialogue on contemporary challenges of forest health and wildfire
Larry Mason et al.
A case for developing place-based fire management strategies from traditional ecological knowledge
Lily A. Ray et al.

Traditional wisdom – protecting wilderness as a cultural landscape
Alan E. Watson et al.
Working with American Indian tribes on wildland fires: protecting cultural heritage sites in northwestern California
Frank K. Lake

Utilization of the Native American talking circle to teach incident command system to tribal community health representatives
Brenda Granillo et al.
Fire burners to firefighters: the Nez Perce and fire
Matthew S. Carroll et al.
Fire, agency and scale in the creation of aboriginal cultural landscapes
Andrew Martin Miller et al.

Communicating about fire with tribal organizations
Germaine White et al.
Developing computer-based participatory approaches to mapping landscape values for landscape and resource management
Stephen J. Carver et al.

Living artifacts: the ancient ponderosa pines of the West
Stephen F. Arno et al.

Wildland fire management as conservation-based development: an opportunity for reservation communities?
Kathleen Rasmussen et al.

Culturally scarred trees in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, USA- interpreting Native American historical forest use in a wilderness area
Lars Ostlund et al.

Private and tribal forest landowners and fire risk: a two-county case study in Washington state
Matthew S. Carroll et al.

Simulated indigenous management: a new model for ecological restoration in national parks
M. Kat Anderson et al.

Maintaining the mosaic: the role of indigenous burning in land management
R.W. Kimmerer et al.

Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: methods and
H.P. Huntington

Fire regimes on andesitic mountain terrain in northeastern Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Stephen W. Barrett

Indian fires as an ecological influence in the Northern Rockies
Stephen W. Barrett et al.

Podcasts

Jul 31, 2023
Life with Fire Episode 55: Humble Fire and Traditional Ecological Practices with Cultural Fire Scholar, Dr. Melinda Adams

Nov 8, 2022
Life With Fire Episode 43: Utilizing Traditional First Nations Values in Land Management, with Francis Johnson Jr.

Jun 2, 2022
Life With Fire Episode 34: Indigenous-Led Fire Stewardship with Amy Christianson

Nov 8, 2021
Life With Fire Episode 20: All Things Cultural Burning with Karuk Tribal Member Bill Tripp

Oct 20, 2021
YourForest Episode 111: Environmental Sociology with John Parkins

Apr 6, 2021
In the Woods Episode 5: Fire

Mar 30, 2021
Fireline Episode 4: The Gift of Fire

Sep 2, 2020
Fire Ecology Chats Episode 4: Incorporating Traditional Knowledge into Fuels Treatments

Oct 28, 2019
Good Fire Episode: Fire Ecology and Indigenous Knowledge

Apr 25, 2018
KHSU Lecture: How Humans Can Provide Services for Ecosystems With Traditional Ecological Knowledge