Fire Ecology

Learn and share the science behind “good fire.” Public perception of fire as a threat shapes policies that hamper fire stewardship efforts. Educating yourself and others about fire ecology can help. Here are some key points to learn about fire ecology and the current state of fire:

• Fire ecology is built on three basic concepts: (1) that in certain ecosystems nature needs fire to thrive, called fire dependence; (2) that the history of fire in each ecosystem can help shape its future condition, called fire history; and (3) that fire’s natural role changes depending on the landscape, called fire regime. In a nutshell, fire ecology takes a close look at fire’s relationship with nature to offer a blueprint for smarter fire management.
• Decades of fire suppression in forest and grassland ecosystems that depend on natural fire has had devastating consequences, including the creation of densely-packed forest stands that are highly susceptible to catastrophic wildfires and a decrease in natural resilience to fire and other threats to forest and grassland health (see Grasslands Nexus).
• For centuries, Indigenous people around the world have understood the importance of fire in caring for the land. Their care and attention is reflected in the words they use to describe fire on the land, including cultural burning, good fire, Indigenous fire, fire-stick farming, and fire as medicine. However, European settlers saw fire as a threat to valuable timber and introduced laws mandating fire suppression (putting out most fires) and fire exclusion (putting out all fires) – practices and policies that are still ingrained in many fire management programs. Even today, some continue to discount the ecological role of Indigenous people.
• Scientists have now employed fire ecology to discover that fire suppression and exclusion have created what’s called a fire deficit: the reduction in acreage burned by wildfires over a long period of time that leads to fuel buildup and consequently increases the risk of large, catastrophic wildfires. Some scientists call this the Smokey Bear effect—referring to the country’s longest-running public-service campaign that pushes a message of fire suppression. These scientists recommend moving from a militaristic “war on fire” toward embracing fire’s regenerative possibilities.
• Though climate change is not the sole cause of increasingly severe and frequent wildfires, including the historic fires in Canada in 2023, the hotter, drier conditions it creates are a major contributing factor. Wildfires themselves are, in turn, contributing to climate change by releasing massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere—emitting more carbon annually than global road, rail, shipping, and air transport combined. Emissions from Siberia’s fires in 2021 alone were greater than Germany’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Wildfires are now part of a deadly feedback loop: increased global emissions lead to higher temperatures, creating drier, more fire-prone conditions (see Desertification Nexus). This leads to more fires emitting more carbon, and the cycle continues. Better fire management in the immediate term and reduced carbon emissions in the long run, are critical to breaking this cycle and restoring fire’s beneficial role in nature. It all starts with fire ecology.
• A hallmark of smarter fire management is prescribed burning: carefully timed, low-intensity fires intended to remove built-up fuel (such as dry underbrush), boost biodiversity, and regenerate grasses and perennials. This practice has been used for millennia around the world by Indigenous people. Unfortunately, in places with a history of fire suppression, the overgrown vegetation that would otherwise have been cleared by fire has created tinderbox conditions that now make prescribed burning riskier.
• Another way to put fire ecology into practice is by restoring ecosystems that have become more vulnerable to fire through deforestation and invasive species (see Degraded Land Restoration Nexus). For example, Israeli forest officials are using “tree swapping” to reduce fire risk—removing nonnative Aleppo pines that spark easily in a blaze and replacing them with less flammable olive trees and Jerusalem oak.
• Fire ecology has applications across many habitats beyond forests. They can range from “cooler” burns on Mozambique’s savannas designed to cut emissions from larger wildfires to tracking and responding to the impact of fires caused by cattle ranches near the Paraná River Delta marshes of Argentina.

Support the renewal of Indigenous fire stewardship. The suppression of Indigenous fire wisdom and practices has deeply harmed Indigenous communities and culture. Now that fire managers around the world are beginning to recognize the benefits of fire, they are looking to Indigenous leaders to bring ancient wisdom back into practice.

• Learn more about the past, present, and future of fire stewardship through the eyes of Indigenous leaders on the Good Fire podcast and from Dr. Frank Lake, a Karuk and Yurok tribe member co-leading the reintroduction of prescribed fire in California’s Klamath River basin.
• Follow Indigenous perspectives on current events, especially related to fire practices and policies, through news sources like High Country News.
• Join or support collaborative efforts like the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network that are revitalizing traditional fire practices in a modern context. Refer to Key Players below for communities and organizations to support.

Practice and promote fire safety. Bringing good fire back to the land should be left to experts who work in controlled conditions, but we can all play a part in fire stewardship by preventing the start or spread of accidental fires—especially for those who live close to wild places, sometimes called the wildland-urban interface or WUI. According to a report from the WWF, 96 percent of the world's fires are now either deliberately lit or unintentionally caused by humans. You can help drive that number down through safer fire practices—whether it’s at home or on your next camping trip—by using basic fire best practices, such as good campfire etiquette, firework safety, and proper use of combustion engine equipment when in dry conditions.

Vote for policies and leaders that put fire ecology into practice. Keep an eye out for fire-related policies on the ballot and be sure to vote for fire management that is rooted in science. Learn from a few standout case studies in fire management below and check out the Governance section for more information.

• India’s efforts to transform forest governance by decentralizing management to local forest-dwelling communities is an attempt to address past forest-rights injustices. While implementation has been flawed, the concept of democratizing forest management could be explored in many contexts, especially those in which Indigenous people have historically been barred from stewarding their ancestral land.
• Finland uses a regimen of prescribed burning and compartmentalized reforestation that its Nordic neighbors could learn from, especially Sweden, where fires have burned out of control. This practice has managed to bring down the area annually destroyed by wildfires from 100,000-plus hectares a century ago to less than 1,000 today.
• Following the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Australia, authorities imposed a stringent risk-reduction standard on utilities, along with a deadline for meeting them. The state simultaneously beefed up its utility regulator, Melbourne-based Energy Safe Victoria (ESV), which now has four times as many arborists and engineers overseeing power infrastructure as it did in 2009.
• The National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021, currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate, aims to greatly expand the number of acres across federal, state, county, and private lands managed with prescribed burns. The proposed legislation also stipulates important employment initiatives to include women, Indigenous peoples, veterans, and formerly incarcerated people in the prescribed-fire-practitioner workforce.

Protect the land you live on. If you live near landscapes that are prone to fire, get to know those places and the people who care for them—from conservation nonprofits to local firefighters. Show your support by volunteering, donating, or spreading the word about their work.

• If you don’t live in a fire-prone area, learn where fires are happening around the world and lend a hand by supporting and raising the profile of action campaigns led by local activists. Consider focusing on critically important ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest, whose health impacts ecosystems well beyond itself.

Know your rights when sharing fire expertise. Ancestral knowledge and wisdom are critical to bringing fire’s natural role back into balance, and Indigenous people are owed respect and compensation for their contributions. Consider referencing these best practices developed by the Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub as a baseline for what equitable partnership could look like when sharing fire stewardship practices in order to ensure a mutually beneficial and supportive exchange. A few of the key points:

• Require traditional and legal rights to be recognized: Indigenous people should have the option to take the lead on stewarding their ancestral lands.
• Ensure the benefits go both ways: Indigenous fire management programs and partnerships can and should deliver environmental, social, cultural, and economic benefits for local Indigenous communities.
• Establish an open dialogue: The most effective partnerships provide opportunities for all parties to learn from one another, sharing knowledge among community leaders, land managers, and scientists.

Partner with fire ecologists and Indigenous fire stewards. The science and wisdom these two groups bring can help turn the tide on the current crisis around wildfires. Take guidance from a network of Indigenous leaders and consider these protocols for Indigenous partnerships based on past programs.

• Check out a powerful partnership in action in this video featuring the Northfork Mono Tribe bringing “good fire” to overgrown woodlands.
• Learn more about how government officials are partnering with the Karuk Tribe to adapt to climate change in the Klamath River basin.
• In Canada, recent research has identified barriers and opportunities for Indigenous-led fire stewardship.

Apply fire ecology knowledge and practices to your land. The way you care for your land and livestock can help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire—protecting your livelihood and contributing to the greater good at the same time (see Regenerative Agriculture Nexus and Grasslands Nexus)

• Find inspiration in programs across the U.S. that employ goats, sheep, and cattle to eat down plants that would otherwise become fuel for wildfires.
• Seek expert guidance to use controlled burns on your land to clear brush that could otherwise catch and spread wildfire. Start by contacting your local land management authority or seeking a prescribed burn contractor database like this one compiled for the Southeastern United States.
• In California, a land owner describes his experience in managing the trees on his property according to traditional ecological practices.

Why Certain Naturally Occurring Wildfires Are Necessary - Jim Schulz by TED-Ed (4 mins.)

Wilder Than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future Documentary by PBS (57 mins.) 

Bring Your Own Brigade: The Incendiary Truth Behind the World's Wildfire Crisis Documentary (119 mins.)

In California, the Northfork Mono Tribe Brings “Good Fire” to Overgrown Woodlands by Buffalo's Fire TV (2 mins.)

Indigenous Fire Methods Protect Land Before and After the Tathra Bushfire by ABC Australia (11 mins.)

Prescribed Fire and Indigenous Food Systems by the Intertribal Agriculture Council (61 mins.)

“Alarmed by Scope of Wildfires, Officials Turn to Native Americans for Help” by Jill Cowan / The New York Times

“‘I Came Home To Fight For My Land’: First Nations Battle Canada Blaze That Displaced Them” by Cole Burston and Leyland Cecco / The Guardian

"In a Drier Amazon, Small Farmers and Researchers Work Together to Reduce Fire Damage" by Letícia Klein and Thiago Medaglia / Mongabay

“How Traditional Indigenous Fire-Burning Practices Protected the Bush” by Nicola Heath / SBS

“The Art of Fire: Reviving the Indigenous Craft of Cultural Burning” by Kelly Boutsalis / Narwhal

“Our Burning Planet: Why We Must Learn to Live with Fire” by Stephen J. Pyne / Yale Environment 360

“Indigenous Fire Stewardship” by Frank Lake / Natural Resources Canada

“Welcome to the Pyrocene” by Stephen J. Pyne / Grist

Startup Series: Droneseed (now Mast Reforestation) by My Climate Journey Podcast (48 mins.)

‎Indigenous Fire Ecology (Good Fire) with Amy Christianson by Ologies With Alie Ward Podcast (61 mins.)

Fire Ecology (Wildfires) With Gavin Jones by Ologies with Alie Ward Podcast (76 mins.)

Good Fire Podcast