Indigenous cultural burning can boost biodiversity, help fight forest fires: Canadian study

Forest fires and wildfires now posing concerns inparts of Canada highlight the complicated relationship people have with fire,says the co-author ofa newUniversity of Waterloo study that indicates Indigenous fire practices can actually help fight them.

There was a time when fires were set on purpose, to boost biodiversity of an area while cutting down the risk of larger blazes taking out communities, said Andrew Trant,an associate professor in the university'sSchool of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.

The study,published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looksat Indigenous fire stewardship setting fires at specific times of the year and locations for various reasons.

Before settlers arrived in Canada, Indigenous people would regularly burn parts of the land, includingfor the creation of trails, to help with agriculture, attract certain animals that would eatvegetation that grows from the scorched ground, or for other cultural reasons.

"There's so many places around the world where we see some form of Indigenous fire stewardship, and in places that we wouldn't expect it, places that are dry and hot, and different grasslands, but also in places that are really wet, and we never imagined fire being used as a tool to manage the landscape, so temperate rainforest," Trant said.

The research reviewed other studies and reports, from 1900 to today, oncultural burning by Indigenous people.

The lead author isKira Hoffman,a recent postdoctoral fellow in the University of Waterloo'sfaculty of environment, andnow a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia's faculty of forestry and The Bulkley Valley Research Centre.

Used when fires 'wouldn't get away'

Hoffman also found it fascinating that fire stewardship was used by Indigenous people around the world.

"Fire knowledge and practices can be very similar in tropical rainforests and dry grasslands, but then differ between neighbouring communities depending on the reason for using fire," Hoffman said in an email to CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

They also discovered that cultural burning "always took place outside of the window of uncontrollable fire activity," she said.

"Whether this was during the spring when the snow was still on the ground or in the fall just before the rains came, or even at night when humidity levels were high, cultural burning was used when fires wouldn't get away," Hoffman said. "In many places, cultural burning is a community practice, and children would learn from an early age how to safely use and respect fire."

'Knowledge keepers weren't listened to'

The study notes there's misunderstanding around cultural burning and a fear of fire. But Hoffman saidtheir findings show there's a way to manage fires that would actually benefit both the land and communities that may be at risk if a wildfire or forest fire were to spark nearby.

• CBC Interactive: Knowing Fire

"Indigenous communities can and have lived safely with fire for millennia to enhance their surroundings. It would be great if after reading this paper, the public emerged with an understanding that fire is a necessary and healthy component of our fire-dependent ecosystems and human communities."

The findings are not surprisingto Amy Cardinal Christianson, a Mtis of Treaty 6 in Alberta who works as a fire research scientist with the CanadianForest Service.

"There's a lot of frustration, at least with the nations that I work with, that the elders and our knowledge keepers weren't listened to about this and that it's kind of taken Western science or other things to prove our knowledge," Christianson said in an interview.

Christianson did not work on this particular study, but has teamedwith Hoffman on other research projects.

She said that when she goes into Indigenous communities, she hears peoplesay forests need to be "cleaned up," meaning there's a need for "low-intensity burns on the landscape to really remove some of that fuel" that could lead to a forest fire, or "bad fires."

"Bad fires are highly destructive to the landscape, [and] can take especially in Northern Canada 100 years to fully recover," she said, noting in some cases, fires are so severe that the forest is never able to recover.

But "good fires" are ones that slowly creep along the ground.

"The important thing with good fire is that you're not burning the big healthy trees," Christianson said.

"When I see fire, I see being around people, community activity, having people thereit being really low risk," she added.

"Kids can be there, elders can be there. You're really controlling your smoke. So I think it's just that almost difference in perception of fire."

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Human-fire relationship needs to change

Trant notedIndigenous people make up five per cent of the world's population, butprotect approximately 85 per cent of the world's biodiversity through Indigenous-managed lands.

He saidthe findings of their study show there are better ways to handle fire on the land.

"The relationship with fire and people has to change, and there's a long history of this relationship being much better and and in many cases positive for the landscape.

"Over the past hundred years, that relationship has shifted and we've become scared of fire in many ways."

Trant said the relationship people have with fire "is a problematic one," but "it's something that we really need to change."

There are "so many reasons" there should be a return to Indigenous fire stewardship, "and we need to support those practices."

Hoffman saidher next research will focus on why there are barriers to cultural burning in Canada and she'll "look to other regions where cultural burning is being revitalized."

"I'd like to push for more support for Indigenous-led cultural burning in communities and territories across Canada."