Land management recommendations “braided” from Indigenous Knowledge and western science

May 14, 2024

Western scientists increasingly recognize that Indigenous land stewardship practices built and maintained more resilient and ecologically diverse forests than today. 

Braiding Indigenous and Western Knowledge for Climate-Adapted Forests: An Ecocultural State of Science Report, released in March 2024, included more than 40 scholars and practitioners to establish foundational content to help strengthen our ties to the land, with benefits for both landscapes and human communities.

Dr. Nicole Zampieri, a postdoctoral researcher in a joint position with the Jones Center at Ichauway and Tall Timbers, along with Dr. Morgan Varner, Research Director at Tall Timbers, were both part of the core writing team for the report.

“I was excited to be part of such an interdisciplinary team. The knowledge-sharing and collaborative effort was inspiring and really placed our work on prescribed fire and land stewardship in an even deeper ecocultural context of active management by humans,” explained Zampieri. “I’m hopeful this report can help inform management plans for our National Forests and beyond.”

The report stems from the direction to protect old and mature forests outlined in Executive Order 14072, signed in April 2022.

Indigenous fire artwork for this report was created by Miriam Morrill.

The team working on the report was co-led by Dr. Susan Prichard, a fire ecologist with the University of Washington, and Dr. Cristina Eisenberg, an associate dean of forestry at Oregon State University. Together, the team developed specific recommendations for climate adaptation at the regional scale, including southeastern forests, in addition to the following five overarching recommendations to restore resilience to our nation’s forests.

  1. Adopt proactive stewardship. This includes cultural and prescribed burning, forest thinning, and other management at the pace and scale needed to overtake wildfires, restore resilience, and reduce reliance on fire suppression and disaster response.
  2. Recognize and respect Tribal Sovereignty and Indigenous Knowledge. 
  3. Provide the flexibility to steward dynamic landscapes and navigate uncertainties under rapidly changing conditions. All landscapes, even designated reserves, are dynamic.
  4. Ground agency planning, and land and resource stewardship policies in ethics of reciprocity and responsibility to many future human generations. People benefit from and provide for the ecosystems that support them for generations.
  5. Catalyze innovative approaches to forest stewardship.

Also included are real-world examples of place-based stewardship, strategies, and tools for adapting forests to climate change. The Red Hills region of North Florida and Southwest Georgia is highlighted as a unique ecocultural region, being one of the few rare instances where fire was never removed from the landscape. That means remnant habitats in the Red Hills offer a crucial lens into the historic composition, structure, and function of forest ecosystems in the southeastern US. It also reinforces the critical need to continue the use of cultural or traditional burning in regions that have not lost the practice and knowledge of those close to the land.

In addition to participating in this unique report, Tall Timbers has sought opportunities to collaborate with Tribal partners. In 2023 the Tall Timbers Private Lands Prescribed Fire Initiative participated in knowledge sharing and prescribed fire support with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians through a project with the Central Alabama Prescribed Burn Association, and in 2019 we hosted a group from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma to reconnect with ancestral lands and the use of fire. 

We have found that being open to Indigenous Knowledge reinforces the deep positive human connection with fire on the landscape and can expand our thinking of long-term stewardship.  

The report is available for download here, along with an interactive map highlighting more than 50 examples of forest adaptation strategies. It was funded by the U.S. Forest Service, the Resources Legacy Fund, the 444S Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Wilburforce Foundation.

About the Author
Brian Wiebler
The Tall Timbers Communications Director is always looking for an excuse to be outdoors. Birds, bikes, boats, boots... all good things for Brian. Originally from Iowa, he grew up in a family with a strong hunting and conservation ethic. This led to a career that has spanned from California to Florida with positions as a wildlife biologist, urban forester, and environmental planner, before landing "home" with Tall Timbers in 2016.
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