Changing Fire's Story from a Source or Symptom of the Climate Crisis to One of its Solutions

Since it was first sparked on land 420 million years ago, fire has played a major evolutionary role in ecosystems and human societies. Indigenous peoples used fire to nurture habitats for a wide diversity of species that provided them with foods, fibers, and medicines, and their cultural burning protected their villages from unwanted wildfires. But Euroamerican colonization forcibly removed Native Americans from their homelands, and criminalized their light-burning. The past century of state-mandated fire suppression and fire exclusion policies has degraded many native ecosystems that evolved with Native fires.

The news media spotlights dramatic images of raging flames and roiling smoke columns that leave charred forests and incinerated homes in their wake. Rarely are seen images of gentle surface flames or the carpets of wildflowers that typically follow. Long forgotten is the view of fire as vital agent of habitat rejuvenation and plant regeneration. The dominant social paradigm now views fire on the land almost exclusively as an agent of disaster, death, and destruction. Wildfire has become the dominant specter of climate change in the west.

Fire is indeed at the center of the climate crisis. However, it is not flaming forests, but rather, burning fossil fuels that is the true culprit. There is another story of fire yet to be told, or more accurately, that needs to be remembered. The cool burns and "good fires" that Indigenous peoples lit with intentionality not only stimulated biological productivity and species diversity, but they also enhanced forest carbon sequestration. Low-intensity fires help protect large-diameter trees and organic soil where the majority of carbon in forests are stored. And charring wood delays decay, so even large fire-killed trees can retain their stored carbon for decades while providing essential habitat for numerous creatures. Charred wood functions like ingots of black gold, keeping carbon out of the sky and sinking it into the soil.

Counterintuitively, more fire rather than less can mitigate both wildfire disasters and climate destabilization, as well as preserve native biodiversity. By fusing traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge with modern fire ecology science, and elevating cultural burning principles and practices alongside prescribed burning projects, fire can increase long-term carbon sequestration and storage in forests. 

The Earth is crying out for the return of humanity's role serving as land stewards with fire, consciously and carefully using fire to stimulate nature's regenerative powers while stabilizing ecosystems thrown off balance from past human abuses. This would convert fire from a perceived source or symptom of the climate crisis to become one of its solutions. Ecological fire management is the path to climate and wildfire resilience hidden in plain sight. But first we must restore our vision to see the living legacy of Indigenous fire ecology lingering in native forests, and appreciate the vitality, mystery, and beauty evident in fire's landscape artistry. 

[this essay was originally published in the Western Environmental Law Update, March 2023]