Over the course of 2025, the Mountain West News Bureau (MWNB) and Our Living Lands (OLL) documented efforts among the Indigenous Karuk of Northern California and the Washoe of both California and Nevada to revive millennia-old traditions of using fire to care for their ancestral territories. In a time of wildfire crisis, these Native traditions provide a compelling and provocative counter-narrative to the prevailing suppression-first mindset that has brought enormous ecological disruption to landscapes across the West and beyond. Their sustained efforts have chalked up substantive wins for Indigenous sovereignty. They have also shown by example that a more balanced relationship with fire is not only possible, but has a time immemorial history on the continent.
OLL is a collaboration between the MWNB, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media.
The Cultural Burning Revival
FOR JUDGES: The audio above is the STORY intended to represent the Cultural Burning Revival series produced by the Mountain West News Bureau and Our Living Lands in 2025. Below you will see links to all of the series stories in chronological order.
In the Western U.S., extreme wildfires are damaging tribal lands. Climate change has only made the situation more dire. That’s why the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California is working to reintroduce intentional, cultural fire. These are once-banned burning practices they use to restore the health of their forests and plants. Published on 1/21/25.
The Karuk of Northern California are one of many Native peoples with a long tradition of burning their ancestral lands. These practices are key inspiration for an annual prescribed fire training that’s been going on for more than a decade. Published on 1/27/2025.
Many Tribes have shown that cultural, intentional fire can restore forests and actually heal the land. What would going back to a large-scale practice of cultural burning look like and how could it be done, and how could we learn to live with fire in modern times? Published on 2/3/2025.
In late September, firefighters in flame-resistant Nomex were strung out along a fireline. It ran midslope through a pine and hardwood forest above the Klamath River and the small northern California town of Orleans. Published on 2/7/2025.
For millennia, Indigenous peoples have intentionally set fires to care for the land. The Mountain West News Bureau's Murphy Woodhouse reports how a new law in California has opened the door to restore cultural burning - a potential model for other Western states. Published 8/1/2025.
Last week, Mountain West News Bureau reporter Murphy Woodhouse brought us a story about cultural burning efforts by the Karuk Tribe in Northern California. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Woodhouse to discuss Karuk burning and its implications across the West. Published 9/22/2025.
