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Reinterpreting Human-Fire Relations in Cultural and Prescribed Fire: The Implications
of Climate Change and the Work to Change Paradigms

Samantha A. Scott
Thompson Rivers University
HRSJ 5930: Research Project
Dr. Sarah C. Moritz
March 26, 2025

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Reinterpreting Human-Fire Relations in Cultural and Prescribed Fire: The Implications of
Climate Change and the Work to Change Paradigms
Climate change is posing specific risks to the Earth’s major elements and our global
resources: including fire, water, soil, and air. These elements have been observed from both
positive and negative perspectives within academic and public discourse, emphasizing their
inherent power and ability for both destruction and creation as well as sustaining forces for life
on Earth. They inform each other in different ways, appearing as both opposites and related
forces. Since they are all life-sustaining, the changing nature of these forces with climate change
pose certain risks for both human and non-human life in both the immediate present and
prospective future. Climate change is predicted to intensify over the 21st century with ongoing
human emissions of greenhouse gases and human impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems
and the effects from this are being understood through the idea of “tipping elements”, which
refers to the components of Earth’s system that could undergo state shifts that exceed critical
thresholds or “tipping points” and that these tipping elements could drive significant biodiversity
loss, alter the distributions of major ecological biomes, compound greenhouse gas emissions and
radiative forcing, and produce important consequences for human society – such as sea-level rise
and severe weather events (Wang et al., 2023, p. 2). The prevalence of severe weather events is
particularly of note and the interactions between climate change and fire are of interest to many
people residing in fire-prone regions, including myself, such as in British Columbia where larger
than normal wildfires are becoming a growing cause for concern.
My research is in part influenced by the practicum work I completed as part of my Master
of Arts degree in Human Rights and Social Justice (HRSJ) at Thompson Rivers University. For
my practicum, I worked with the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC in Kamloops

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researching the POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project (2024) and cultural burning and was in charge
of writing a contribution for their annual magazine. The piece I wrote focused on the state of
wildfire in British Columbia and utilized current public news sources and websites including the
Good Fire podcast, The Globe and Mail, The Narwhal, and Parks Canada in order to discuss the
importance of the resurgence of cultural and prescribed fire in fighting against extreme wildfire
activity, restoring ecosystem health, and working towards reconciliatory action and healing by
reintegrating a practice that historically prohibited Indigenous communities from conducting
these vital practices under colonial governance. Furthermore, the piece highlighted the
importance of cultural and prescribed burns in grassland ecosystems. The magazine covers
various subjects and projects related to the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC to an
audience of people across Canada, with a concentration on local residents in Kamloops that are
active citizens or engaged Thompson Rivers University students, professors, and alumni.
Contributing to this magazine was important in that it is a site of public knowledge and intersects
with various community perspectives. This experience helped to inform my larger research
project for my master’s program and effectively integrate my interests in climate change,
wildfire management in British Columbia, decolonization, and environmental policy. My interest
in all of these interlinking areas of research comes from being born and growing up in Lheidli
T’enneh Territory (Prince George, BC, Canada). I spent the majority of my young years enjoying
various outdoor recreation activities in the area like camping, swimming, and hiking. Living in
British Columbia nearly all my life, the increase in wildfires has been very apparent to me, from
notably smoky summers, close fires of note, evacuations of nearby communities that resulted in
an influx of evacuees during summers of high fire activity, and concern for family members
residing in rural areas. Climate change and wildfire management is a complex issue in British

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Columbia, impacting various groups of people of different racial backgrounds, socioeconomic
statuses, gender identities, and abilities.
In my research, taking a decolonial approach that emphasizes Indigenous voices is
important, as Indigenous knowledge keepers have skills in maintaining and living on this land
that have been passed down for centuries, and this is especially pertinent in the case of wildfire
management and mismanagement. Defining decolonization within climate change research is
something I will expand on in succeeding sections.
My research also aims to highlight women in wildfire management and climate change
research, as the intersection of gender and climate change is pertinent. For example, women are
often at higher risk of climate-related burdens and impacts, as well as unequal participation in
decision-making and labour markets that prevent women from being able to contribute to
climate-related planning, policymaking, and implementation (United Nations Climate Change,
n.d., para. 1). Highlighting the experiences of women and the challenges they face in a time of
climate change is important in recognizing the unique burdens women face in times of natural
disaster including poverty, home-based occupations, a lack of access to education and
representation in leadership roles (Climate Change, n.d., 0:20). The benefits of the inclusion of
women’s voices and leadership in these processes include greater environmental protections,
more stringent climate policies, and the ratification of environmental treaties (Wray et al., 2023,
p. 1088). This is supported by the fact that environmental and climate policies passed when
women have positions of power are more likely to be effective and promote equality, which is
supported by studies that show women’s presence in the Executive Committees of CFIs in India
and Nepal positively impacts forest conservation and women’s empowerment, justice, and
welfare and enforcing gender quotas in forest management community groups in Indonesia,

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Peru, and Tanzania found that groups in which women comprised an equal number or majority
of members conserved more trees and shared payments more equally among members (Wray et
al., 2023, p. 1088). Women in climate leadership are currently hindered by many factors –
including cultural norms, childminding, lack of financial support, and lack of access to
education, which requires structural changes and supportive services in order to address these
inequalities (Wray et al., 2023, p. 1089). Although understudied, the representation of women in
cultural burning initiatives is also of significance. For example, Martu Indigenous women (the
Martu people are Indigenous inhabitants of Western Australia), were found to apply fire in a
specific fashion that was distinct from that of Martu men and that women’s burning was
important for women’s hunting needs (Cavanagh, 2022, p. 89-90). There needs to be space and
opportunities made for Indigenous women’s voices so that they are also heard (Cavanagh, 2022,
p. 91). It is vital that the unique perspectives of Indigenous women are taken seriously in cultural
and prescribed fire initiatives in such a way that their lived experience is not overlooked or
continued to be erased in the patriarchal colonial systems which govern them.
This is especially important in considering intersectionality within climate change
research. Intersectionality was originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) and was a
critique of feminist theory and anti-racist politics by highlighting the unique experiences of black
women in experiencing oppression and exclusion (Mikulewicz et al., 2022, p. 1276). If applied
more broadly, intersectionality refers to the idea that oppression operates in such a way that
different types of oppression intersect with each other, depending on an individual’s lived
experiences. This ideology emphasized the reality that women of colour face unique barriers that
must be considered within feminist theory. If applied more specifically, climate change and
intersectionality are linked in that they both have roots in radical theory and share a commitment

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to human emancipation and ending the oppression of marginalized groups (Mikulewicz et al.,
2022, p. 1278). A gendered analysis within climate change research allows for a more nuanced
understanding of human emancipation through the focus on women as a large and encompassing
group that has historically been restrained in social, political, and cultural realms.
A notable creative account of the personal, lived effects of climate change and its impact
on women comes from Meghan Fandrich, a writer from Lytton who experienced the tragic fire
that destroyed the town in 2021. Fandrich’s collection of poems Burning Sage: Poems from the
Lytton Fire, was published in 2023 and details her experiences navigating being evacuated from
Lytton and losing her home, the place where she worked, lived, and owned the Klowa Art Café,
while supporting and looking after her daughter. Her poetry is captivating in that it details the
experiences that are easily taken for granted until a traumatic event occurs:
and somewhere among those flames
were homes, farms
the school
probably burning
that red glow
our whole world
on fire (Fandrich, “Fire at Night”, 14-20)
What is of emphasis in these lines is the reminder that every community serves as a microcosm
of something larger. Every community member is enveloped by places that constitute an
individual’s world, and this can be hard to remember or digest fully in a world that functions
through globalized relationality. In another vein, some of her poems highlight the importance of
community and external support in surviving traumatic events:

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People are fishing today
the Nlaka’pamux
dipping their nets into strong water
hanging deep red flesh
to dry in the wind
almost like
life goes on
my neighbour brought me a salmon
heavy gift
almost like she had always been next door
almost like her house
didn’t burn (Fandrich, “Sockeye”, 1-12)
These lines reveal profound community relations. Not just with other people in the community,
but with the surrounding ecosystems, the fish, the water, and the continuity of life. These
connections are important in understanding the impact of climate change on individuals, and
especially in the context of wildfire management in British Columbia, as new and more intense
wildfire activity continues to put communities at risk. These connections also evoke the idea of
kinship in times of crisis, as things we take for granted in our everyday lives like houses and
food are evocative of memories and emotional responses in that they are associated with our
sensory experiences from childhood (Carsten, 2020, p. 325). This helps to illustrate the emotive
qualities in both of Fandrich’s poems and the emphasis on both homes and food as sources of
memory and symbols of one’s basic needs. This can be seen as the entanglement of kinship with
different forms of property, which seemingly associates kinship with settled existence, but the tie

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to “the evocative powers of memory, and the capacity of portable objects and technologies to
evoke relational ties with emotional resonance, means that kinship can readily be carried from
one place to another even by solitary travellers and in the absence of living relatives” (Carsten,
2020, p. 325). Kinship does not cease to exist among displaced individuals in times of
environmental crisis. Kinship can therefore be seen as something that is essential in times of
environmental crisis. Harroway (2016) argues that making kin with others, even those that we
may not be similar to, is necessary in facing the predicted increase in natural disasters of the
future, which is often referred to as the sixth mass extinction or the next extinction in the history
of life on Earth that has been accelerated by human-induced climate change (Drake, 2015, para.
1). Thus, kinship is important to consider in that it increases our ability to foster resilience in
times of crisis and navigate necessary displacement.
Climate Change as a ‘Wicked Problem’ with Influences from the Age of Enlightenment
and Western Colonialism
Understanding climate change as both a distinct phenomenon and a nuanced problem to
tackle on a global scale involves different perspectives and approaches. The idea that climate
change is layered and multi-faceted is not a new concept. Climate change can be seen as a
‘wicked problem’ due to the interconnected nature of climate change with other major social
issues and its consequences on related systems. Theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber (1973)
coined the term wicked problem to help highlight the complexities and challenges of addressing
planning and social policy problems. Some clear identifiers of how climate change meets the
criteria of a wicked problem are that there is no end to the number of possible solutions to the
problem, it can be described as the symptom of other problems, and it is a problem that lacks an
inherent logic that signals when it is solved (Stony Brook University, n.d.). Since climate change

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unequivocally meets the criteria of being a wicked problem, it suggests that climate change
should be treated as an interdisciplinary problem and remarkable area of research among a
variety of scholars.
In considering what has come to be known as the Anthropocene, which was coined by
chemist Paul J Crutzen and diatom researcher Eugene F Stoermer (2000) and refers to a new
geological epoch, or the unit of time that human beings are currently occupying – and in which
human beings are having the greatest impact on the natural environment, (Pavid, n.d., para. 1)
one can look backwards in time to consider what has led us here and the types of thinking that
have resulted in a global system that is dependent on the extraction and exploitation of natural
resources. This extraction and exploitation did not come out of nowhere, “the replacement of
renewable energies (wind, water …) by coal at the beginning of the industrial revolution did not
owe to some simple technological advantage that coal had over renewables. Rather, it was used
the better to subject the uprooted peasants to the industrial machinery which was producing for
the market” (Felli, 2021, p. 5). This notion stems from Malm (2013), who argues that fossil fuels
should be understood within social relation and as a necessity to commodity production and
result of wage or forced labour (p. 17). Thus, the value system associated with capitalism, and
more specifically, anthropocentric and extractive decision making, is one that is inherently based
on power and inequality.
The terminology of the Anthropocene is rightfully contested, as it separates humans from
non-living entities (Masaki, 2021, p. 4). Western philosophy can help to explain how the
conception of an Anthropocene came into being and why the climate crisis has advanced from
historical Western philosophical thinking, as early philosophers like John Locke centered human
beings in their conceptions of the world, making non-human entities and resources subject to our

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control by a conceptualized ‘inherent’ right (Masaki, 2021, p. 5). Rousseau had a different
influential outlook on humans in relation to nature, seeing animals of equal creation to humans
and emphasizing Earth’s inherent beauty (Masaki, 2021, p. 7). However, aestheticizing nature
has its own criticisms, in that it views nature as something that can inherently benefit humans or
be a source of pleasure which implies the objectification and or utilization of nature for personal
gain. The idea of the sublime emerged in the Enlightenment period and was influenced by many
prominent figures like Kant and Wollstonecraft, emphasizing the “awe-inspiring capacity of
nature and beauty, characteristics that artists and thinkers sought to replicate in their own work
and even to apply to ethics” (Cartwright, 2024, para. 1). The sublime also evokes an inherent
conflict between the appreciation of beauty with a feeling of awe, astonishment, and
incomprehension of the eternal (Cartwright, 2024, para. 2). The sublime helps to explain why the
beauty of nature was emphasized, but it does not outright explain how it led to misinterpreting
the role of nature.
A potential answer can be found in the conflation of nature and beauty with human
characteristics and behaviour. Van Dyke stated in The Desert: Further Studies in Natural
Appearances (1901) that “beauty is an intrinsic quality in nature, he argues in the book; it has
nothing to do with human ideas of goodness or morality. It is not something men and women
bestow on the world, whether by deeds or imagination, but is independent of human beings,
though it can afford sensuous pleasure” (Worster, 1992, p. 72). This helps to illustrate why this
conflation could be dangerous in that it distracts from the reality that nature is not inherently
beautiful for any greater function or understanding. Nature is beautiful because it is, and beauty
can only ever function as an observation, not an objective truth. Recognizing these early Western
perspectives of domination and control, aestheticization and goodness, helps in the analysis of

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why we have been and continue to be estranged from nature in major part by colonialism, the
industrial revolution, and late stage capitalism.
Productive climate change research “implies a rupture, breaking from the neoliberal
moment. It calls for the democratic extension of social protection, and a different way of
organizing the fabric of our lives” (Felli, 2021, p. 159). Indigenous studies looks to understand
vulnerability as influenced by climate change within colonialism and as a direct contributor to
climate change (Whyte, 2017, p. 156). Furthermore, productive climate change research also
implies a rupture from what Miranda Fricker (2007) coined as “epistemic injustice” or the unfair
treatment of individuals based on ideas of one’s capacity for and execution of knowledge. The
long history of epistemic injustice against Indigenous peoples in Canada has resulted in “...a
barrier to collaboration and coordination between multiple knowledges and different
stakeholders, and this barrier is particularly strongly felt in sustainable development because of
the power differentials and distance. Byskov, for example, argues that the exclusion and
underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples from national climate strategy deliberations is
epistemic injustice because they have ‘a special interest in implementing sustainable and
responsive climate strategies that take their knowledge and interests into account’” (Cummings
et al., 2023, p. 1969; Byskov 2018). Thus, climate change research should also seek to employ a
decolonial lens and center Indigenous voices in order to deconstruct climate change’s colonial
origins and perpetuity.
This academic report intends to address key questions within current climate change
research related to the increased incidence and severity of wildfires in British Columbia, Canada,
the barriers to cultural burning practices that would support Indigenous land sovereignty and
promote ecological health, the consequences of extreme wildfire activity on water ecosystems,

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education and community involvement as methodology, and recommendations for fire managers.
I use the term ‘stewardship’ throughout this report in order to encapsulate the relationship
between human and non-human entities in thoughtful conservatory action. However, the term
also evokes a hierarchical relationship, in which humans are the owners or proprietors of the
Earth and that this relationship is nonreciprocal. McIntyre-Mills (2021) suggests that if
stewardship is to be taken seriously then steps need to be taken to recognize the habitat of all
creatures including those living in cities and suburbs as well as wild animals and that loss of
habitat for plants and animals is an inevitable issue that needs to be addressed (p. 123).
Therefore, stewardship also implies that wellbeing should be protected and that mitigating the
issues associated with climate change needs to happen through green methods of production and
non-anthropocentric ethics that place humans at the centre of a web instead of above the web
(McIntyre-Mills, 2021, p. 130). Transforming the ideologies surrounding stewardship into these
suggested definitions is no easy task and involves larger restructuring. However, challenging
stewardship as a term and invoking responsibilities at a higher level is essential to decolonial
climate change research and action.
The Climate Crisis and the Increase in Wildfire Activity in Canada
A significant number of scholars in environmental science and adjacent disciplines find
that wildfires are going to become more prevalent and extreme with climate change (Boegelsack
et al. 2018; Di Virgilio et al. 2019; Hoffman et al. 2022). Boegelsack et al. (2018) outline climate
change effects on wildfires as being both direct and indirect, and environmental and human
caused. Direct environmental causes are rising temperatures, decreased humidity, prolonged
drought periods, and strong and shifting winds (Boegelsack et al., 2018, p. 462). Indirect
environmental causes are increased pollution affecting tree health and mortality and pest

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populations like pine beetles (Boegelsack et al., 2018, p. 463). Direct human causes include
accidental fires due to ignorance as well as arson, while indirect human causes include extensive
logging and grazing, and the introduction of invasive species (Boegelsack et al., 2018, p. 465).
Understanding which causes are direct and indirect helps give context to which causes can be
managed through intentional changes in human action and which causes may be harder to
manage due to overlapping influences like pollution and current environmental policies.
Di Virgilio et al. (2019) show that climate change effects are associated with the
development of pyrocumulonimbus wildfires (extreme wildfires) in southeastern Australia and
that the conditions, such as atmospheric instability and dryness that would cause the
development of more pyrocumulonimbus wildfires, is especially prevalent to the consideration of
urban expansion in fire-prone regions (p. 8517). Furthermore, as observed in a multi-regional
data set across wildfire sites in the US Rocky Mountains, there is evidence that significantly less
tree regeneration is occurring after wildfires in the 21st century in comparison to the 20th century
due to warmer and drier conditions (Stevens-Rumann et al., 2018, p. 249). The effects of severe
wildfires on people are extensive. For example, material loss can include but is not limited to
loss of livelihood, homes, businesses, family heirlooms, sentimental items, and financial loss
(Rossiello & Szema, 2019, p. 2). More direct loss can occur as well, such as the loss of lives of
vulnerable populations and decreased public health from exposure to wildfire smoke causing
significant respiratory distress or related chronic conditions (Rossiello & Szema, 2019, p. 2).
Hoffman et al. (2022) echo similar sentiments and highlight that the increase of high-severity
fires in Canada needs to be addressed and that wildfire policy needs to be changed, as well as the
fact that we need to be looking to Indigenous-led cultural burning to reduce wildfire risk in

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wildfire-prone zones (p. 4). This leads to the history and prevalence of cultural burning in
wildfire management.
Resiliency in Wildfires through Traditional Burning Methods
Cultural burning has existed from time immemorial and was practiced by Indigenous
peoples across Canada. The literature in the field of environmental science that largely comprises
Western science and epistemologies (although more recently includes perspectives of Indigenous
science and epistemologies) observes that ecological health and fire resiliency can be bolstered
through cultural burning (Eisenberg et al. 2019; Hoffman et al. 2021; Van Vugt 2021).
Additionally, fire served to create a mosaic of growth in forests and grasslands, which bolstered
biodiversity and ecological health (Eisenberg et al., 2019, p. 2). The overt benefits of fire in
Canadian (and other) landscapes begs the question of why fire has been suppressed. The answer
lies in colonialism and the public perception of wildfire as being inherently ‘bad’ or ‘destructive’
(Hoffman et al., 2021, p. 1). The public perception of fire being inherently ‘bad’ or ‘destructive’
is a consequence of continued fire suppression and the subsequent effects of colonization that
resulted in capitalism and a resource-based economy. Thus, advocating for fire resiliency,
embracing pro-fire approach to biodiversity, and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and
stewardship is inherently a human rights and social justice issue that requires taking a critical
stance on the systems that currently govern environmental action. Understanding cultural
burning as a historical issue is essential in that it has played an important role in maintaining the
land, multiple forms of knowledge, and generational transference that was disappreciated,
misunderstood, and feared, which resulted in active banning (Van Vugt, 2021, p. 18). This
prohibition occurred in British Columbia in the early 20th century through fines, withholding
resources, and embargos on hiring Indigenous peoples on all scales of government with the

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wrongful characterization of cultural burning as an unsafe activity and Indigenous peoples as
uneducated in the ‘proper’ ways of wildfire management that served to make white settlers feel
safe and, as a result, contributed to the loss of many techniques and ceremonies surrounding fire
(Van Vugt, 2021, p. 18). Reintegrating cultural burning into conversations surrounding climate
change and wildfire management is nuanced and involves recognizing the history of settler
colonial relations with Indigenous peoples.
Methodology
As mentioned previously in this report, a component of my master’s work in the MA
HRSJ program included a practicum term, and for this term I worked with the Grasslands
Conservation Council of BC in Kamloops, writing a piece about current cultural burning
initiatives in BC for the council’s annual magazine. The practicum component of my program
allowed for hands-on experience and collaboration with an organization to gain skills and
applied experience. This experience allowed me the opportunity to develop a larger project based
on what I learned and contribute to the organization. There were certain limitations to the
practicum with time constraints and program planning requirements associated with the program.
The practicum covered 126 hours of work and had to be completed by the end of the summer
term. This meant that my work with the organization needed to be focused and concerned with
what would benefit both the organization and my professional development as a graduate
student. Writing for the magazine allowed me to contribute something meaningful to the council,
create something focused within my academic interests, and support my research.
Data collection for this article was gathered through academic sources, news articles,
government and non-governmental organizations websites, and professional experience learning
about and working with members of the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC. This leads to

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the key information I collected while researching cultural and prescribed fire, current examples
within and outside the province, and implications surrounding the revitalization of cultural
burning practices.
Examples of Indigenous Fire Stewardship in British Columbia: Yunesit’in, Lytton, Siwash,
Aq’am, and Xwisten
Similar to Canada, in the United States in the 20th century, federal and state agencies
instituted fire suppression policies that excluded prescribed fires, including cultural burning by
Indigenous communities” (Murveit et al., 2023, p. 181). California is a state within the United
States that is also facing an increase in climate-related extreme fire activity. One example is from
the mid-Klamath River Basin where the Karuk and other Indigenous peoples have historically
used low-intensity fires to minimize the risk of larger wildfires, encourage wanted plant
communities, increase hunting, and maintain cultural resources (Murveit et al., 2023, p. 181).
The study describes the research between the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources and
a cohort of graduate students and their advisors who represent the Southwest Climate Adaptation
Science Center. Two essential questions were of focus in this study: how can a collaborative
process to guide ethical research on topics related to Indigenous knowledge be developed and
how can the knowledge and culture of the Karuk People be amplified (Murveit et al., 2023, p.
183). Data collection involved in-person semi-structured interviews in the Karuk Aboriginal
Territory in August 2021, and was informed by Storywork (Murveit et al., 2023, p. 193). Results
yielded from this project took the form of a four-episode podcast called Intentional Fire (2022)
that shared stories from the Karuk people about their relationship with fire and the importance of
sovereignty over fire practices. The podcast episodes discuss different fire-related topics such as
Tribal sovereignty, colonization, forest and fire management, changes in the land over time,

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traditional and medicinal plants, and experiences with cultural and prescribed burning (Murveit
et al., 2023, p. 194-95). Success of this method of research comes from collaborators having
expressed interest in working together beyond the Intentional Fire podcast and into a second
season, which points to the potential for academia and Indigenous communities to work together
in an ethical manner to strengthen skills and research protocols that ensure that all voices are
heard. The author-collaborators of this study predict that “the podcast episodes will fulfill their
objective to disseminate cultural knowledge to the younger generations, policymakers, and
broader public” (Murveit, 2023, p. 195). The strength of this study is that it is a strong example
of collaborative research practice, qualitative data collection, and accessible knowledge
dissemination. These strengths in research are important within the topic of cultural burning, as
they allow multiple voices and perspectives to be heard simultaneously and work to diminish
hierarchical power imbalances.
Examples of Indigenous Fire Stewardship in British Columbia are similarly only entering
the conversation surrounding climate change wildfire management in recent years, and more
notably within the last year accompanying the release of the POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project
(2024) from the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies. This report highlights key
points surrounding wildfire activity and climate change in British Columbia and what actions
should be taken. Such as, wildfire activity is increasing in frequency and destructive magnitude,
the state of wildfire in British Columbia requires an all of society approach, and prescribed burns
need to be increased in frequency. Furthermore, the provincial government needs to address the
current state of wildfire in British Columbia, work on wildfire resilience, and all levels of
government need to be involved: the provincial government, Indigenous governments, federal
and local governments, industry, researchers, and civil society (MacNaull, 2024). Therefore, the

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POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project (2024) serves as a collection of professional opinions to help
bring voice and urgency to the implications of climate change in British Columbia, emphasizing
that the current state of wildfire is not going to improve without significant changes.
Indigenous cultural burning in British Columbia has been primarily carried out in
collaboration with the BC Wildfire Service. Recent examples posted to the Government of
British Columbia website are from the Yunesit’in, Lytton, and Siwash areas and include
collaboration with the Yunesit’in and Lytton Nations. The burning occurred between April 2023
and October 2024 and had shared goals to improve public safety, especially to communities
residing in places where burn risk is high and there is an accumulation of fuels in nearby brush
areas. Additionally, there were shared goals to improve forest or grassland health while also
contributing to community collaboration with the BCWS and the recognition and resurgence of
traditional land practices by Indigenous communities. Reducing wildfire hazard within at-risk
communities is especially prevalent in that wildfire hazard and risk has spatial implications in
British Columbia, as “the cumulative impacts of successive fire emergencies have a profound
effect on the long-term resilience and resources of many remote and isolated communities” and
can be seen through repeat emergency incidents with the increase in wildfire activity and repeat
wildfire evacuations in specifically at-risk communities (Erni et al., 2024, p. 12). Furthermore,
Indigenous on-reserve communities are disproportionately affected by emergencies related to
natural hazard, such as wildfires, as a result of remote location and socioeconomic conditions
(Erni et al., 2024, p. 13). Erni et al. (2024) conducted a wildfire spatial risk assessment
evaluating vulnerability and risk to Canadian communities and found that 18.9% of people living
in reserves reside in high fire risk areas in comparison to 2.5% of the non-reserve population (p.
13). This discrepancy in relative hazard and risk with certain populations residing in high-risk

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communities needs to be considered in fire mitigation efforts, meaning that cultural and
prescribed fire efforts in remote areas of British Columbia are particularly pressing.
Yunesit’in First Nation, which is located 114 km West of Williams Lake, is reclaiming
Qwen (fire) stewardship, which is important in the context of the 2017 Hanceville wildfires
(Nikolakis & Ross, 2023, p. 105). The 2017 Hanceville wildfires burned a large amount of the
Chilcotin region and impacted the territories of the Yunesit’in where forests and grasslands
burned, stressful evacuations occurred, psychological and cultural impacts were felt, in addition
to reduced hunting and gathering opportunities and poor water quality (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023,
p. 107). The pilot Qwen stewardship program from April 2019, which was supported by the
Gathering Voices Society (an organization that facilitates Indigenous environmental stewardship
programs in British Columbia) aimed to strengthen landscape stewardship, train local people in
fire stewardship practices rooted in Indigenous knowledge, and to center the communities in
collectively determining where and when to burn, as well as establishing the rationale for these
decisions (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023, p. 107-8). An inquiry into the success of this program
consisted of unstructured, open-ended interviews and documented the fire-stewardship goals of
Yunesit’in and Xeni Gwet’in community members for their fire knowledge and to be
representative of diverse voices in the communities and discussion focused on the importance of
bringing fire back to the land and the goals desired from the program. As a result, “three general
goals from their Qwen (fire) management program were identified in the interviews:
strengthening cultural connection and well-being, which included revitalizing and sharing
Indigenous fire knowledge that can connect people to their land and to individual and community
well-being; restoring the health of the land through Indigenous fire stewardship, to produce
resilience to wildfire and protect Mother Earth (biodiversity), and maintaining culturally

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important sites; and respecting traditional laws, or Tsilhqot’in laws that reflect and maintain
responsibilities to the land and to future generations” (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023, p. 109). Amy
Cardinal Christianson (2015), a policy advisor and cultural fire researcher/practitioner, has stated
that there is a lack of studies on the goals from Indigenous fire stewardship in the social science
and natural science literatures due to differences in worldview, ethical requirements, and the time
needed to build relationships with Indigenous peoples, that makes research complex and time
consuming (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023, p. 108). The perspectives of community members revealed
that fire is viewed as a tool and important piece of a complex and adaptive socio-ecological
system that is bound up in duties and laws to steward lands for all living beings and future
generations, as well as honouring ancestors. Participants expressed goals from the program as
connecting people to the land in deep ways, improving human health and wellbeing,
empowerment, and maintaining and transferring traditional knowledge (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023,
p. 113). The results of this program evaluation reveal that a holistic, long-term perspective on
social value is essential (Nikolakis & Ross, 2023, p. 114). This case study highlights important
considerations for Indigenous fire stewardship and cultural burning and prescribed fire
collaborations. Specifically, developing the relationships required for these collaborations will
take time and the deliberation of both Western and Indigenous worldviews in that these
collaborations can be improved through broadening the timeframe for evaluating initiatives and
accommodating qualitative perspectives.
There have also been noteworthy examples of cultural burns near Cranbrook and Lillooet
that also had shared goals of reducing the risk of larger, more severe fires in the area and
revitalizing cultural burning practices. The first case study near Cranbrook took place April 28,
2023, with the Aq’am community of the Ktunaxa Nation. The fire was notable in that its purpose

21
was to mitigate future wildfire activity effects and also that it represents a case study of not only
fighting fire proactively but revitalizing previous Indigenous fire practices (Stueck, 2024, para.
7). Stueck (2024), states that “prescribed fires are at once a throwback and a possible glimpse
into the future” (para. 11). This is true in the sense that cultural burning has helped to maintain
ecosystems prior to colonization and cultural and prescribed fire has the ability to help mitigate
the effects of increased and extreme wildfire activity in the future. However, the space inbetween the past and the future remains critical in understanding cultural and prescribed burning
is perceived and where we can go from here. This insinuates recognizing that cultural burning
was prohibited for many years (since the Bush Fire Act in 1874) (Strachan, 2024, para. 9) and
that we are in a position now to try and re-integrate past practices in order to help address the
current climate crisis and improve future outcomes that have resulted from this prohibition.
The next case study near Lillooet was proactive in helping improve future resilience to
increased fire activity and took place in the community of Xwisten (Bridge River Indian Band)
on March 18, 2024, under the authority of the Bridge River Indian Band, in order to reduce
hazardous fire fuel associated with the risk of extreme wildfires in the area (Strachan, 2024, para.
5). In the words of St’at’imc Government Services (SGS) political lead for the joint planning
forum with BC Hydro, Qwalqwalten (personal communication, November 2024):
The prescribed burn was a joint effort with BC Wildfire Service. They identified a several
hectare burn around the three main village sites. Initial attack, Xwisten fuel management
crew teamed up. Xwisten has several folks who worked with BC Wildfire for several
years. The combined efforts made for great collaboration. The burn went off without a
hitch as far as I could see. The fuel load was definitely reduced. I believe they were able
to utilize a helicopter to drop incendiary devices that were triggered to ignite once they

22
hit the ground. Crews on ground had cut fuel breaks on the perimeter of the burn area.
Xwisten has done smaller burns on their own over the years. This was the first time it had
been done on a large scale. Xwisten has also set up sprinklers on each home in the
community. This is a precautionary measure in the event a fire does break out and
threatens homes. One of the dilemmas for Xwisten is that their water system can be
depleted very quickly. So, the prescribed burn is a great way to reduce the impacts if a
fire were to break out.
These examples present a glance into the 61 prescribed or cultural burns planned for the
year to treat 47 square kilometres of land, according to the B.C. government (51 of which
Indigenous communities are developing or co-developing), which is lacking in comparison to
plans for other jurisdictions. (para. 28). For example, New Jersey, which is 40 times smaller than
British Columbia, treated 5 times as much land last year (Strachan, 2024, para. 30). Therefore, it
is important that education on cultural burning increases and legislative barriers are lessened in
order to ensure that burns are able to make a difference on a larger scale.
A relevant creative and collaborative case study related to cultural burning is Peter Holub
and Sarah Sigurson’s work with the Williams Lake First Nation and Yunesit’in community
facilitating art-based workshops (four in Williams Lake First Nation and two in Yunesit’in)
(FireSmart BC, n.d., para. 9). The workshops, facilitated by Sarah Sigurson, were tailored to the
communities and involved forest materials, like juniper, sage, rosehips, and burned bark from the
2017 wildfires (FireSmart BC, n.d., para. 10). Participants were able to lead, make conversation,
and while having varying degrees of knowledge on cultural burning and art, found a way to
relate and connect to the land through themes of survival, regrowth, colonization, and
interconnection. The experience was deemed beneficial by participants in that the creative space

23
for family and sharing also allowed for an opportunity to recollect the past (FireSmart BC, n.d.,
para. 11). This example of expression and sharing knowledge through creative means is
important in the larger conversation of education in cultural burning initiatives. It allows a
complex issue to be digested in an alternative fashion and allows individuals to share their stories
and contribute to a larger body of knowledge at the community level.
These case studies encompass current initiatives towards cultural burning access,
planning, and execution – as well as partnership between the government and Indigenous
communities to mitigate risk and promote long-term ecological health through cultural and
prescribed fire. Furthermore, the example of knowledge mobilization through art in Williams
Lake suggests movement towards bringing the topic of cultural burning into public
consciousness and spaces where community members can learn more about the history of
cultural burning and or contribute their own recollections, which supports movement towards
shifting paradigms surrounding the representation of different knowledge systems as valid and
the effects of climate change. Throughout history, cultural burning has maintained different
ecosystems extending outside of forests, such as grasslands.
Canada’s Grasslands: An Endangered Ecosystem
The importance of recognizing grassland ecosystems in Canada and their relationship
with fire is supported by the fact that they are extremely endangered, vital to conserving native
species, have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial, and are ecological
sites where cultural burning can yield benefits (Driver 1987; Blackstock & Allister 2004; Hisey
et al. 2022). Canada’s grasslands are an endangered ecosystem that also needs fire, as “both
grasslands and forests evolved with fire as one of the natural agents, resulting in diversity of
form and species” (Driver, 1987, p. 217). Grasslands also underwent fire suppression from the

24
influences of European settlers and the influence of human development like roads, fields, and
heavily grazed pastures (see Figure 1), which can contain naturally occurring fires (Driver, 1987,
p. 217).
Figure 1
Hereford Cattle On Open Grassland Nicola Valley

Note. By British Columbia. Forest Service, 1949, Image na-10104 courtesy of the BC Archives.
Grasslands risk being overlooked in the conversation about fire management with a sharp
focus being on managing large-scale forest fires, but they are a key component to healthy
ecosystems and host vast biodiversity in terms of both flora and fauna. For perspective,
grasslands have lost about 70% of their historic range due to factors such as urban development
and agriculture (Hisey et al., 2022, p. 684).
This means conservation policy needs to look towards protective measures to maintain
the grasslands that are left while also upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples through increasing Indigenous conservation (Hisey et al., 2022, p. 690).
Thus, it is important to raise awareness about grassland ecosystems and how cultural and

25
prescribed burning can be used to help bolster resilience in a time of both increasing extreme
wildfires and human development that continues to put grasslands at risk, as well as promote the
education of the local Indigenous peoples and their practices within the grasslands in order to
support their historical benefits and continued survival.
Using fire as a management tool in grasslands has been practiced over the years. For
example, the prescribed burning of grassland plants in study plots at Last Mountain Lake in
Saskatchewan (Driver, 1987, p. 219). In this study, plant species did not show significant
declines after fire and heavy layers of dead vegetation were able to be removed, allowing more
plants to receive more light and moisture to grow, which contributed to increased small mammal
and bird diversity as well (Driver, 1987, p. 221). However, the inclusion of Indigenous
perspectives on fire management practices in grasslands has long been left out of the
conversation due to the favouring of Western science and policy initiatives and the suppression
of Indigenous knowledge systems and land-based practices. For example, “throughout several
thousand years, the Secwépemc developed ways to harvest, manage, and enhance the resources
of their diverse environment, adapting to changing ecologies and fine-tuning the ways that
plants, animals, and fish could be sustainably harvested” (Ignace & Ignace, 2017, p. 145). These
ways of looking after the land contributed to enduring ecological health of the grasslands precolonization.
Indigenous Perspectives from Nlaka’pamux, Syilx, Secwépemc, Stl’atl’imx and Tŝilquot’in
(British Columbia’s) Grasslands
Listening to Indigenous voices in the conservation of grasslands is vital in working
towards decolonial action, supporting the policies outlined in the United Nations Declaration of
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and advocating for the protection of grasslands in Canada, as

26
Indigenous knowledge is generational and showcases living memory of grasslands pre-settler
contact and colonization (Blackstock and McAllister 2004; Lewis et al. 2018). Blackstock and
McAllister (2004) use ethnographic and historical research methods to document Indigenous
experts’ historical memory of the grasslands in the southern interior of British Columbia.
Indigenous peoples of the southern interior grasslands include the Nlaka’pamux, Syilx,
Secwépemc, Stl’atl’imx and Tŝilquot’in (Blackstock and McAllister, 2004, p. 24).
Indigenous perspectives on the history of grassland ecosystems is important in
understanding ecosystem structure prior to European contact, analyzing grazing impacts, and
providing insight for the management of grasslands (Blackstock and McAllister, 2004, p. 24).
Blackstock and McAllister’s (2004) study has as its objectives: the recording of Indigenous
perspectives on agricultural activity in relation to land and culture and the discussion of
grassland restoration ecology, using ethnographic and historical research methods (p. 24). Here,
grasslands were observed to have belly-high grasses by the Nlaka’pamux (Thompson), Syilx
(Okanagan), Secwépemc (Shuswap), Stl’atl’imx (Lillooet), and Tŝilquot’in (Chilcotin) nations
and plants from the grasslands were used and managed by Indigenous peoples for subsistence,
medicine, technology, and spiritual and ceremonial purposes. Examples include arrow-leaved
balsamroot, bitterroot, and spring beauty that were important food sources, shrubs like saskatoon
that provided both food and medicine, and paper birch which provided for making baskets (p.
24) (see Figures 2, 3, and 4 for examples of arrow-leaved balsamroot, spring beauty, and
saskatoon in Secwépemc and Stl’atl’imx territories from within the last 20 years).

27
Figure 2
Kamloops…on the McQueen Lk "O" map…masses of Balsamroot.

Note. By Murray Foubister, 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.

Figure 3
2009 Sun Peaks Summer...Western Spring Beauty (Clintonia lanceolata)...

Note. By Murray Foubister, 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.

28
Figure 4
Saskatoon Berries in Seton Portage

Note. By John Freeland, 2011, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.
Blackstock and McAllister (2004) found that in relation to fire, prior research documents
that Indigenous peoples used fire to manipulate grassland succession to maintain browse for
ungulates, suppress sagebrush, and encourage herb growth. Furthermore, elders adapted their use
of fire to suppress the intruding sagebrush, and the Secwépemc people managed tree
encroachment on the prehistoric grasslands through landscape burning of the grasslands, which
also created healthy forage for the ungulate species (p. 28). These perspectives reveal the
importance of fire in grassland management and the relationship between fire and grassland
ecosystems within British Columbia’s southern interior grasslands (see Figures 2, 3, and 4 for a
historical representation of the grasslands in Secwépemc territory from over 100 years ago and
within the last 20 years.).

29
Figure 5
Same : Lac du Bois

Note. By British Columbia. Dept. of Mines, 1913, Image i-62213 courtesy of the BC Archives.

Figure 6
Lac du Bois, Arnold's ranch, 15 miles N by E Kamloops

Note. By British Columbia. Dept. of Mines, 1913, Image i-62212 courtesy of the BC Archives.

30
Figure 7
Lac du Bois grasslands…

Note. By Murray Foubister, 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.
These figures mark differences in tree density, the abundance and height of grass, human
settlement, and technological advancements. Since these fire regimes have been long suppressed
in grassland ecosystems and human encroachment remains a risk to British Columbia’s
grasslands, learning from historical and ongoing Indigenous perspectives is vital in discerning
how to build grassland resilience in a time of environmental crisis.
Lewis et al. (2018) conducted a study looking at the use of cultural burning in the past
and present in Lytton First Nation (LFN). Traditionally, fire was used as a tool by the
Nlaka’pamux people in the area of ƛ'q'əmcín (Kumsheen or Camchin), now known generally as
Lytton, to maximize desirable plants and animals and achieve ecological and cultural objectives
before European contact (Government of British Columbia, n.d.; Lytton First Nation, n.d.; Lewis
et al., 2018, p. 143). The study sought to answer to what extent members of the LFN have
resumed burning after nearly half a century of fire exclusion and to establish a baseline for the

31
present burning practices of members of the LFN and determine the current status of Indigenous
fire in the valley and the implications on desirable ecological and cultural outcomes for the
inhabitants through a series of personal interviews (Lewis et al., 2018, p. 145). Results of the
study found that participants were aware of historic burning in the valley and were frequent
burners, and although many LFN members burn today, broadcast or area burning is no longer
common and few burn beyond their property (Lewis et al., 2018, p. 147-8). In terms of rationale
behind the burns, they are conducted for similar reasons as the historic ones, including to
improve natural conditions through decreasing weeds and fuel, improving grazing for ungulates,
and to minimize fire threat (Lewis et al., 2018, p. 148). A strong finding in this study is that fire
use in the Lytton area remains but has decreased in scope and that traditional rationales like
foodstuff amelioration have become less common (more so among participants 50 years of age
or older) whereas debris control and hazard abatement are predominant motivators for using fire.
This contrasts pre-colonization Indigenous groups, who burned for a variety of rationales such as
cultural, social, and ecological (Lewis et al., 2018, p. 149). The results of this study support a
decreased use of fire after a long history of fire exclusion. However, the results also suggest that
the use of fire has persisted over time despite this exclusion, and that traditional rationales for
fire use in grasslands is still of importance, primarily among older generations.
Wildfires, Water Quality, and How Fire Influences Water Ecosystem Health
The lack of fire on the landscape over time has led to extreme wildfires and this has
unique consequences on water ecosystems, in which there are observed links between wildfire
severity and the quality of water ecosystems (Scott & Pike 2003; Emmerton et al. 2020; Robinne
et al. 2021). An article from Scott & Pike (2003) looked at the relationship between wildfires and
watershed effects in the Southern BC Interior. Hydrologic effects are measured in relation to the

32
size and severity of wildfires. Results of wildfire include reduced evapotranspiration losses,
increased water availability for replenishing soil and groundwater stores, increased streamflow,
earlier and larger peak flows, and deeper snowpacks that melt earlier. Severe wildfires can
accelerate the potential for soil erosion, destroy soil aggregates, create water-repellent
conditions, and stream temperatures may increase where riparian shade is reduced (Scott & Pike,
2003, p. 4). Consequences of severe wildfires on water quality can be seen in drinking water. For
example, a study in southeastern British Columbia found that wildfire produced detectable
changes in several measured drinking water parameters such as increases in nitrate-nitrogen, pH,
total nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, conductivity, total hardness, total alkalinity, turbidity and
true colour. Turbidity and true colour were found to exceed Canadian Drinking Water Standards
during the study period (Scott & Pike, 2003, p. 4). Understanding how wildfires impact water
quality is essential in addressing the long-term effects of extreme wildfire events within public
health and human rights discourse on natural disaster management.
Increasing and more extreme wildfires poses certain risks for water quality in that
wildfires can enhance meteoric runoff from watersheds through chemical sealing and reduction
in evapotranspiration due to vegetation removal and depending on the timing and severity of the
fire, delivery of ash and sediment, organic matter and nutrients, major ions, and trace
contaminants can occur in receiving waters and cause secondary ecological impacts on aquatic
ecosystems (Emmerton et al., 2020, p. 2). Emmerton et al.’s (2020) study looks to assess the
impacts of the May 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in northeastern Alberta, Canada on the water
quality of large and low-relief rivers in the region using a multi-tiered monitoring approach to
target signal detection (Emmerton et al., 2020, p. 2). Results from this study found that wildfire
impacts on river water quality were detectable at the very large basin scale following the 2016

33
Fort McMurray wildfire (Emmerton et al., 2020, p. 7). The broader wildfire impacts to water
quality of regional rivers were markedly lower than commonly reported in smaller watersheds of
greater relief, but water quality impacts were observed across a range of very large river basin
scales nonetheless (Emmerton et al., 2020, p. 11). This study reveals important data regarding
extreme wildfires and water quality. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire was a significant natural
disaster that reflects much of what is predicted to be in store for British Columbia as wildfires
continue to grow in size and intensity.
There is an urgent need for baseline information on the vulnerability of source waters to
wildfire in the literature, as it remains limited despite the inherent risk and as climatic and
hydrologic extremes grow in magnitude and frequency, which increases water security issues
(Robinne et al., 2022, p. 1). A first step in the assessment of wildfire-water risk is a baseline of
hydrologic datasets where deviations from normal conditions could point to fire-related
disturbances (Robinne et al., 2022, p. 6). Wildfires in municipal watersheds can disrupt drinking
water production in downstream communities for several years after the burn, cause expensive
water treatments, and many communities lack source water protection plans addressing wildfire
hazards (Robinne et al., 2022, p. 8). One suggestion from Robinne et al. (2022) is to extend
collaboration in the risk management sector and develop wildfire-watershed risk research
through emergency management strategy to help identify the different actors involved in forest
conservation and water management including “...drinking water providers, First Nations,
watershed councils, forestry companies, municipalities and provincial agencies responsible for
water resource management, and federal agencies involved in forest research and water science,
among others” with which collaboration would be paramount to the production of risk
information (p. 11). This commentary points to the importance of continued research in wildfire-

34
watershed risk and the collaboration of different groups to produce risk information and call for
action to key stakeholders.
A current, ongoing initiative involving the effects of wildfires on watersheds is a research
project funded by the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BC-SRIF) and is working to
restore the Deadman River (located west of Kamloops) and investigate how mitigation measures
following severe wildfires can help protect landscapes and important salmon habitats (University
of Northern British Columbia, 2024, para. 1). This project, Tsecmenúl̓ecwem-kt (We Repair the
Land), is a three-year, $4 million project led by the Skeetchestn Indian Band in collaboration
with Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corp., University of Northern British Columbia, University
of British Columbia, Thompson Rivers University, BC Ministry of Forests, Fisheries and Oceans
Canada, Pacific Salmon Foundation, SLR Consulting, Secwépemc Fisheries Commission and
Urban Systems and was made in response to the Deadman Watershed being severely impacted
by the Sparks Lake wildfire (the largest in BC in 2021 and which burnt more than 900 square
kilometres of land including 60% of the traditional territory of the Skeetchestn Indian Band
(University of Northern British Columbia, 2024, para. 2). This project suggests that efforts are
being made to address gaps in current research surrounding the effects of wildfires on watersheds
and how water quality can be preserved during extreme wildfire events.
Current Political Limitations
The imminent need for proactive measures in wildfire management and its effects on
water ecosystems is largely left in the hands of political leaders and policy makers. There are
barriers to cultural burning as existing within political frameworks that perpetuate colonialism in
that Western science initiatives are put at the forefront of government policy and the policies in
place inhibit decision-making, create extensive timeframes, and limit resources (Sloan Morgan

35
and Burr 2024; Hoffman et al. 2022). Sloan Morgan and Burr (2024) offer a critical analysis,
employing a political and justice-based approach to fire research in British Columbia, Canada,
and look at how settler colonialism reveals tensions in land management and fire with an
emphasis on how this affects the places that are our homes as well as how colonialism can be
viewed as ongoing (p. 1919).
Thus, politically, at the federal, provincial, and local levels there still needs to be greater
movement to promote practices such as cultural burning as a potential solution to the long-term
and detrimental effects of severe wildfires and less diverse forests. Additionally, there needs to
be a movement to allow and implement cultural burning as an Indigenous-led practice where
relationships are built on the recognition and respect of traditional land-based knowledge as a
valid knowledge and governance system. Recognizing the need to revitalize cultural burning
practices also requires the acknowledgment that cultural burning did not fade away or become
frozen in time, as it was always there, nascent, but actively prohibited. Conservation has been
militarized and the impacts on Indigenous peoples have been severe or even fatal in that “fortress
conservation is typically brutally enforced by military and paramilitary operatives, sometimes in
conjunction with the army and police” (Dawnson, 2023, p. 37). Therefore, the definition of
conservation needs to be challenged and decolonized, as conservation implies that the only way
to protect the planet is through colonial and racist Western notions, which insinuates “...that
conservationist views are ‘scientific’ and that their monolithic definitions of ‘humanity’ and
‘nature’ are true and nonideological” (Dawson, 2023, p. 8). Conservation in British Columbia
still operates under these colonial notions and the history and prohibition surrounding cultural
burning serves as a good example. Conversations surrounding the revitalization of cultural
burning and the removal of certain barriers to cultural burning are only recently making their

36
way into public consciousness. Movement into challenging and changing colonial conceptions of
conservation is a conversation that while ongoing, is still not being integrated into public
discourse at a larger scale. In regard to both of these observations, work that fights against
environmental and social calamities should aim to join Indigenous and local communities around
the world (Dawson, 2023, p. 5). This is because advocacy work at the community level has the
potential to grow in strength and scale.
Discussion
Writing about current issues and contributing to public discourse allows for the
transference of knowledge and an important idea in climate change research – which is that the
most effective way to change the perspectives of individuals and current systems is to do the
work to change paradigms or build movement from the community-level up (Meadows 2008;
Norgaard 2011). Meadows (2008) describes paradigms as beliefs that are unstated because
everybody knows them, are represented by common ideologies, and function as the source of
larger systems from which shared social agreements and system goals emerge (p. 163). This
illustrates paradigms as the building blocks of shared beliefs and knowledge transference, which
implies an inherent power, but also an inherent difficulty in that it can be hard to dismantle or
change a system that has solidified over time. Meadows (2008) references Thomas Kuhn in
suggesting how to change paradigms, who says “you keep pointing at the anomalies and failures
in the old paradigm. You keep speaking and acting, loudly and with assurance, from the new
one. You insert people with the new paradigm in places of public visibility and power. You don’t
waste time with reactionaries; rather, you work with active change agents and with the vast
middle ground of people who are open-minded” (p. 164). This is not an easy or time-efficient
approach, but it is a thorough and enduring methodology.

37
Norgaard (2011) echoes similar sentiments to Meadows (2008), suggesting that climate
change denial results in answering big questions as to how we garner awareness and influence
political and economic systems to enact change. The examples Norgaard (2011) leans into
include The Slow Food movement, which launched in Italy in 1986, and the reinvigoration of the
environmental movement in the western United States, as these are examples, although
imperfect, work from the ground up and suggest climate denial can be disrupted in what
Norgaard refers to as making the path by walking it (p. 227). Work at the community-level is
also important in that “typically, interpersonal and small-group dialogue can address these needs
much better than mass communication received in the privacy of one’s living room’” (Norgaard,
2011, p. 228-229). Although work from the ground-up can be seen as intimidating and laborious,
and communicating with people across different political stances is intrinsically challenging, it is
worth trying (Norgaard, 2011, p. 229). One of the challenges with climate change is that it is
something that is not going to go away; rather, it is predicted to intensify incrementally and
affect people across the globe, regardless of location or socioeconomic status. Considering all
aspects of how to bring about change and rethink current systems is critical in initiating potential
solutions.
Recommendations for Fire Managers
This academic report has intended to address timely key questions within current
interdisciplinary climate change research surrounding the increased incidence and severity of
wildfires in British Columbia. More specifically, it has sought to address the barriers to cultural
burning practices that would support Indigenous sovereignty and longstanding land use practices
and promote greater ecological health in both forest and grassland ecosystems, the consequences

38
of extreme wildfire activity on water ecosystems, and the necessity of education and community
involvement as methodology.
I have created a number of key recommendations for current and future fire managers by
analyzing in-depth the key messages from my research and the larger scholarly debate in each
core section of this report. These include:
1. Indigenous knowledge and governance practices need to be at the forefront of
cultural and prescribed fire initiatives, as cultural burning has directly contributed
to the long-term maintenance of vital ecosystems. Furthermore, the history of cultural
burning being prohibited and managed through the systems of colonialist and capitalist
jurisdictions requires dismantling power imbalances in order to advance authentic and
enduring relationships. Given that cultural burning was subject to intended erasure
through The Bush Fire Act (1874) and the effects of colonization in Canada, reintegrating
the practice is not a straightforward process. It can be framed as both working with
memory and unraveling trauma, and this contrasts what some professionals may be
experiencing in the field. For example, “fire managers are not necessarily attempting to
envision a premodern nature when it comes to returning fire to national parks—there is a
recognition that these landscapes are in flux—but instead their work is an attempt to
piece memories and present circumstances together. They are also very much aware that
they cannot remember everything because the contemporary landscape is something that
has been made as much by ecology as by culture” (Sutherland, 2018, p. 21-22). In this
sense, reviving cultural burning means trying to work in the present with something that
was marked by past circumstances, and this makes the work inherently challenging.
Indigenous leadership in wildfire management means integrating Traditional Ecological

39
Knowledge (TEK) into the forefront of the conversation, which is not a quick or easy
task, and is linked to memories that are not always accessible and communities that feel
unwilling to share memories with the federal and provincial governments due to the
history of the violent colonization of Indigenous knowledge and peoples surrounding fire
management (Sutherland, 2018, p. 23-24). Furthermore, much of the landscapes that need
fire are still under colonial rule and are places where Indigenous relationships with the
land have been prohibited. The importance of memory reveals the relationships with fire
that used to exist and how fire has been transformed into political discourse where the
goal was to manage fire in order to create unnatural landscapes (Sutherland, 2018, p. 24).
This also resulted in the valuing of Western epistemologies above all others, especially
Indigenous ones. Therefore, it is important to recognize “by virtue of the changing set of
relationships between people, policies, and landscapes, memory work must be coupled
with ‘imagining work,’ answering countless calls for us to see the Anthropocene as an
opportunity to become otherwise than we are now” and that while many working
professionals in wildfire management will grapple with how to integrate fire into larger
processes and not disrupt other mandates, it is vital to aim towards an honest portrayal of
human-environment relations and to engage in what work there still is to do (Sutherland,
2018, p. 24-25). Sutherland (2019) also engages the idea of prescribed burns as ‘contact
zones’, which suggests that they envelope “...a particular set of actions and processes that
ignite new relationships between humans and landscapes that burn. The places where
burns unfold are already entangled in specific political and institutional geographies” (p.
783). Repairing relationships surrounding wildfire management in British Columbia will
take time, effort, and work to break down outdated knowledge systems. Framing cultural

40
and prescribed fire as memory work and contact zones (Sutherland 2018; 2019) is useful
in that it places the complexity surrounding the history of colonialism and wildfire
management into a site of understanding among individuals and illustrates the
expansiveness of knowledge and the care it requires in navigating the work to put fire
back onto the landscape.
2. There needs to be gender-diverse representations within climate change research
and wildfire management, which represents the unique experience of women
navigating natural disasters and ongoing systemic issues. Grasslands have until recent
contact been governed by matriarchal systems and in support and rejuvenation of these,
these perspectives should be lifted up more (personal communication, anonymous
Secwépemc Elder, January 2025; The Secwépemc Nation Research Ethics Guidelines,
n.d.).
3. Further research initiatives and policymaking surrounding the relationship between
wildfires and water quality need to be advanced and upheld in order to help
evaluate potential long-term impacts and create innovative and inclusive mitigation
strategies. There is a lack of current research on the potential long-term effects of
wildfires on water quality. However, the literature on the subject implies that “projections
for increased occurrence of catastrophic megafires have intensified concerns regarding
the threats posed to the high quality water from forested landscapes and resulted in many
new initiatives to reduce wildfire threats to aquatic systems and drinking water supply”
(Bladon et al., 2014, p. 8937). Thus, wildfire is known to significantly threaten water
quality and aquatic ecosystems which also evokes issues of community infrastructure and
public health that will vary substantially by geographic region (Bladon et al., 2014, p.

41
8941). This means that the impacts will be highly variable, creating a challenge to
produce reputable science and accurate predictions of the relationship between wildfires
and water, as it is constantly changing with the climate. Furthermore, it suggests decision
making on major issues like the regionalization of drinking water supply and treatment in
smaller communities, the management of forests to protect water from wildfire, and who
should pay for land and water management (Bladon et al., 2014, p. 8941). These are
difficult questions that involve investment from a variety of actors and policy decisions
that require significant research and funding in order to fill knowledge gaps (Bladon et
al., 2014, p. 8941). The intersections between wildfire and water are undeniable, and
given the importance of both resources, the interactions between the two should be taken
seriously as the effects of climate change intensify and persist.
4. Cultural and prescribed burning initiatives need to be adequately funded and
implemented on a larger scale within a shorter and more adaptive timeline. As
highlighted in this report, cultural burning has been historically prohibited, meaning that
funding and implementation efforts have long been neglected. This has resulted in the
imminent need for action and work to bolster cultural and prescribed fire in order to
promote lost ecological health and diversity in a time of climate change. Funding for
scientific research, equipment, and the time and efforts needed for fire practitioners to put
fire back on the land needs to be on a larger scale and implemented in a shorter
timeframe than what is currently being done. This has to do with the urgency of more
extreme wildfires occurring at a faster rate and the financial implications of wildfire
damage on at-risk communities. Another implication of increased cultural and prescribed
burning initiatives is the reduction of appeals versus the wildfire act in British Columbia.

42
Public appeals from the previous 10 years highlight individuals that burned on their
property with the intent to burn off dead vegetation and or actively reduce wildfire risk.
These appeals can be found on the BC Forest Appeals Commission website (Welcome To
The Forest Appeals Commission, n.d.) and depicts a reactionary relationship between
individuals and the government, in which fines are significant and consequential in the
case of accidental fires that were derived from good-intended precautionary actions. This
begs the question as to why there is not more being done to support individuals in
protecting and managing their properties and reducing fire hazards so that people do not
face the consequences of having to try and treat the problem by their own means.
5. The ideologies and uses of the words ‘conservation’, ‘caretaking,’ and ‘stewardship’
need to be challenged and decolonized. For example, there has been a recent movement
to use the terms ‘guardianship’ and ‘guardians’, and this terminology supports that
guardians’ work is guided by both Indigenous and Western science (What Guardians Do,
n.d., para. 2). Challenging the definitions and uses associated with the terms
‘conservation’ and ‘stewardship’ is important in creating what McIntyre-Mills (2021)
refers to as transformative research (Mertens 2017) and implies that research is both
personal and societal in that “...social and environmental justice requires upholding the
right to a life worth living and to ensure that sentient beings are not commodified and
abused” (p. 126). This suggests a non-anthropocentric approach to democracy and
governance in order to ensure that those who are elected are held accountable so that
collective responsibility is taken in protecting people and the planet (McIntyre-Mills,
2021, p. 132). However, this requires recognition of the interdependency of living
systems and making ongoing policy adjustments so that a new form of organizational

43
relationships would redress the power imbalances that contribute to social, economic, and
environmental injustice and promote the appreciation of cycles for regeneration that
sustain living systems (McIntyre-Mills, 2021, p. 132). As older systems need to be
transformed, so do the terminology and the ideologies they carry.
6. Access to current information on cultural and prescribed burning needs to be
improved so that it is a part of public consciousness. Climate change discourse is of
increasing importance. The intersection of discourse surrounding Indigenous rights,
reconciliation, and Indigenous land sovereignty is also of great importance and the
intersections of all of these conversations are vital to future decisions regarding natural
disaster management in British Columbia. However, these conversations are both
nuanced and controversial in that “politically fragmentation and populism have become
the new order driven by capitalism, anthropocentrism, sexism, speciesism, nationalism
and racism. The case is made that liberalism has progressed too far in undermining
collective (cosmopolitan) responsibility. Current forms of democracy, governance and
economics need to be re-framed by recognizing that we are interdependent” (p. 127).
Thus, public discourse needs to encompass a lens of interdependency, that highlights the
need to work together in a time of crisis and recognizes the mistakes that have been made
in social and environmental policy decisions that have historically led us here.
Furthermore, including the public in environmental discourse, through increased
accessibility to current knowledge on climate change research and what is being done,
could help in extending a sense of ‘ecological citizenship’ and could foster awareness
surrounding democracy and rights – so that rights are considered responsibilities and the
economy and market not as eternal but as part of the global commons on which the next

44
generations depends (McIntyre-Mills, 2021, p. 134). This is especially of relevance in the
case of grasslands, which are the most endangered ecosystem in the country. Reinforcing
the idea of the power of citizens and working to empower and include individuals instead
of limiting available information on current issues is crucial in helping to motivate people
to care about the future of climate change and invest in what can be done in the present.
The next steps in restoring ecosystems and managing wildfire require consideration of the
past, taking the rapidly changing effects of climate change seriously, and the creative application
of various knowledge systems in order to foster resiliency, kinship, and courage in a time of
mutual adversity. John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather (2023) states in a recent article from The
Narwhal, “you can see why people are freaking out. It’s not a rational time. Nature isn’t
behaving rationally; it’s behaving reactively and we have ecosystems and infrastructure that are
equally unsuited to what’s coming” (Simmons, 2025, para. 29). However, the idea that
ecosystems are unsuited to what is coming is not a new concept. Higgs (2003) explores the
legacy and change in use of Jasper National Park, which hauntingly prefaces the recent 2024
wildfire (Government of Canada, 2024). Higgs’ (2003) argument lies in the changes in human
interaction and development in Jasper National Park, such as the disappearance of hunting in the
area due to changed laws and the growth to millions of people that now use the Yellowhead Pass
(p. 269). These changes infer that places like Jasper National Park and all of the ecosystems that
surround us are always in flux. Higgs (2003) invites us to see these significant changes as an
invitation to imagine if there is a possibility to make equally large changes in the future but with
a greater intention to ecologically restore (Higgs, 2003, p. 269). Higgs (2003) also evokes Simon
Shama, author of Landscape and Memory (1995) who suggests that landscape and memory are
intertwined and require consideration of cultural and natural history, which does not deny the

45
seriousness and urgency of the present ecological predicament, but questions if we should look
to new myths as potential cures rather than to the old ones (p. 22). This perspective speaks to the
resurgence of cultural burning. We have often looked too far ahead and not at what is behind us
and has worked before. It is now up to us to decide how to move forward.

46
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