Amah Mutsun Land Trust Fire Symposium

You are invited to our first Amah Mutsun Land Trust Fire Symposium, an online event that will bring together tribal leaders, fire researchers, archaeologists, and others for a discussion on coastal Central California’s fire history, prescribed burning, and Indigenous fire stewardship.

This year, we have seen catastrophic wildfires throughout California, including in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Diablo Range within Amah Mutsun Tribal Band territory. These fires are a symptom of an unhealthy relationship between people and the land.

For countless generations, Native peoples of California used cultural burning/prescribed burning to maintain healthy and productive landscapes. Today, a long history of fire suppression in concert with climate change has resulted in an unsustainable relationship with wildfire, increasing risks to our lives and homes as time goes on.

In this symposium, we will share traditional knowledge and results of research about how Native people used fire to steward landscapes and discuss how Tribes are working to revitalize cultural/prescribed burning as a land management tool.

Speakers & topics:

*Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s Land Stewardship Traditions
Valentin Lopez, Chair, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band

*Eco-Archaeological Research on Indigenous Cultural Burning
Kent G. Lightfoot, Ph.D., Professor, Anthropology Dept., UC Berkeley
Rob Q. Cuthrell, Ph.D., Director of Archaeological Resource Management, Amah Mutsun Land Trust

*Indigenous Fire Stewardship in Central California
Don Hankins, Ph.D., Professor, Geography & Planning Dept., CSU Chico

*Long-term Fire History and New Research in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Scott Stephens, Ph.D., Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Dept., UC Berkeley

*Amah Mutsun Land Trust’s Work to Revitalize Indigenous Fire Stewardship
Sara French, Interim Executive Director, Amah Mutsun Land Trust