Managing Wildfires Using A Centuries-Old Indigenous Practice

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.Several members of the Karuk tribe were laying down strands of fire with drip torches.Aja Conrad, who runs the tribal natural resource department’s environmental education field institute, was the firing boss trainee. She kept a close eye as the strips burned together and smoke filled the air.“Can you just keep an eye on that and maybe not put too much fire below it?” she told one of her burners.“Copy that.”Read the rest of this article on sciencefriday.com.Transcript for this radio story will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.