Fire as a convener: Blue Forest welcomes new science advisor Diana Almendariz

Written by: Saraya Hamidi, Indigenous Partnerships Manager

Over the past two years, I have gotten to know Diana Almendariz—a cultural practitioner and storyteller of Maidu/Wintun and Hupa/Yurok traditions, heritage, and experiences, dedicated to the cultural and ecological revival and restoration of her homeland, now called the Sacramento Valley.

Grounded in the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) passed down by her grandmother and elders, Diana has dedicated her life to sharing knowledge and perspectives through educational programs with institutions and organizations such as the University of California, Davis and Cache Creek Conservancy. She is a cultural fire practitioner and a traditional steward of cultural resources, including tule and acorn.

Blue Forest was grateful to host Diana at our team retreat in 2023, where she led a TEK workshop, and later, to support Diana in attracting funding for her TEK internship program for Native and BIPOC youth. This November, Blue Forest staff joined Diana at the Cache Creek Conservancy Tending & Gathering Garden, located in Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation territory, for her annual burn event.

The workshop, called Leok Po (Good Fire in Wintun), was hosted by Cache Creek Conservancy, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), and the University of California, Davis. It brought together Tribal leaders, fire professionals, community members, partner organizations, and federal and state agencies to experience a cultural burn demonstration and engage in meaningful conversations about the critical role of TEK in addressing today’s environmental challenges. The workshop highlighted how cultural burning balances the ecosystem by reducing non-native species, promoting cultural resources, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing catastrophic wildfire risk while strengthening relationships between people and the land.

After last year’s burn, I wrote a blog post discussing differences between cultural fire, implemented by Indigenous peoples, and prescribed fire, implemented by state and federal agencies. This year, I’d like to discuss cultural fire’s role in deepening relationships.

I spent the day with old and new friends, including local fire stewards, research students at UC Berkeley, alumni from the UC Davis Keepers of the Flame class, and Tribal forestry crew members. As I ran into friends working across the Tribal environmental field, it became clear that cultural fire, an ecosystem stewardship tool, a spiritual practice, and a cultural responsibility, is also a convener for people and knowledge.

Fire brings people together—across Tribes, generations, communities, agencies, and organizations. By hosting an open event, Diana and her co-stewards invite Tribal and non-Tribal people alike to experience the goodness of fire, witness the transfer of intergenerational and inter-Tribal knowledge, and develop a relationship with fire and the land. Attendees ranged from elders and elementary school children to CAL FIRE representatives and cultural practitioners.

I asked my two team members if they had ever attended a prescribed burn before, and I learned they hadn’t. Prescribed fire has a single objective: to reduce fuel loads and thereby reduce wildfire risk. It is operational, and therefore, not positioned to convene community or knowledge. Cultural fire, on the other hand, can be applied to accomplish a variety of objectives, such as to promote cultural foods or medicines or to reduce non-native or overgrown species, while simultaneously promoting community building, knowledge sharing, cultural revitalization, and healing.

In California, a state that outlawed cultural fire in 1850 and only affirmed its use in the legislature in 2022, the open nature of the workshop is even more profound––especially as Tribal fire stewards continue to face federal and state harassment to this day.

My greatest takeaway from attending the burn was the profound generosity of Diana and her co-stewards to share leok po (good fire) with the community, regardless of affiliation or background. It also demonstrated fire’s ability to gather people around shared goals and responsibilities to care for the earth. The powerful nature of cultural fire underscores the critical need to reduce barriers and increase resources to support Indigenous fire stewardship.

As an organization, Blue Forest is guided by a set of core values including “Grounded in Science,” meaning that we believe effective ecosystem restoration is rooted in Western Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Blue Forest is honored to close 2024 by welcoming Diana Almendariz as a science advisor, the first Indigenous science-focused advisor on our team. In working with Diana, we hope to expand our support for Indigenous science, expand our ability to respectfully and appropriately engage with Traditional Ecological Knowledge and leok po (good fire), and be guided by Indigenous leaders as we work to advance our mission to advance climate resilience for ecosystems and communities.