When Margo Robbins was growing up on the Upper Yurok Reservation along the lower Klamath River, she listened to elders speak about how their ancestral homelands shifted from large swaths of prairie to dense forests of fir. For hundreds of generations, the Yurok would practice cultural burning, using controlled burns to maintain the health of their lands. After fire-suppression policies were introduced in the 1800s, that way of life changed.

In 2013, Robbins created the Cultural Fire Management Council, a community-based nonprofit composed mostly of tribal members that works to restore the Yurok’s homelands. Two years later, she helped launch the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network—along with The Nature Conservancy and practitioners from the Hupa and Karuk Tribes—in order to help other groups create similar programs. We talked to Robbins about how her ancestral homelands and cultural practices have transformed alongside fire policy.

Can you describe how your home has changed?

I have always lived here on the Upper Yurok Reservation, except when I went to college. When I look out my window, I can see the river, and beyond it, a traditional village site that at one time was a big flat grassland. But now, it’s just full of brush and trees. Our landscape is very, very different than when I grew up because of the fire-exclusion area.

Was cultural burning a part of your upbringing?

When I was very young, there was a period of time in the ‘60s when the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) and the U.S. Forest Service realized the benefits of fire, and they actually helped people burn. Then it became a very serious offense. Grandmothers would sometimes send their grandsons up a hill with a pack of matches because little kids can run through the mountains like nobody’s business and escape people who might otherwise arrest an adult. But cultural fire was not really part of my upbringing.

"One of the big reasons why we burn and continue to burn is for our basket-weaving materials.”

Which important plants rely on burning?

One of the big reasons why we burn and continue to burn is for our basket-weaving materials. Hazel and bear grass are fire-dependent; others rely on fire to thrive. Then you have the tanoak tree, which produces the kind of acorn we like to eat. If they aren’t burned underneath, then the acorns get really buggy. Those that take root grow into tall skinny trees that don’t produce anything. They also create a closed canopy that keeps sunshine from getting to huckleberry bushes.

What is the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) currently focusing on?

We used to have elk here when the area was almost 50 percent prairie. We only have two percent of that left. The elk are just a few ridges over, so we have plans to create a corridor and extend the prairie, which is really encroached on with fir trees, Himalaya, and Scotch broom.

What are the challenges facing your work?

One of the challenges to continue this type of work is a steady source of funding. The CFMC got its first big grant from CalFire and it made a big change in our landscape. The Forest Service owns a pretty good-sized piece of Yurok ancestral territory. We’re just in the beginning stages of partnering with them to take care of a smaller piece of overlapping land. We are also required to get a permit to burn on fee and trust land from CalFire and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I feel like it should be the tribes who are the ones deciding when and where we can burn. Who knows our homeland better than us?

Learn more about Robbins’ work with the Cultural Fire Management Council at culturalfire.org and with the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network at firenetworks.org/ipbn or attend a training exchange hosted by Robbins and the Cultural Fire Management Council. The biannual meetings, geared towards fire practitioners of all levels, focuses on sharing information about the role of fire on the ecosystem, Yurok culture, and prescribed burns.

Cover photo of Robbins using cultural burning to restore her homelands, by Matt Mais.

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