cultural burning

Overhead view of a few firefighters watching smoldering burn piles in green scrub in the shadow of tall trees.

Banned for 100 years, cultural burns could save sequoias 

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On a cloudless day in California’s Sierra Nevada, the Tule River Indian, North Fork Mono, and Tübatulabal Tribes gathered to lead a small cultural burning demonstration in the Alder Creek Grove. Since the California ban was lifted in 2022, only two off-reservation cultural burns have taken place in the giant sequoia range: The demonstration at Alder Creek Grove and an earlier burn led by the Tule River Indian Tribe on Forest Service land.