We are excited to present another issue packed with information and inspiration from our amazing partner groups as they quest towards greater climate resilience and ecological health in the redwood region of northern California and southern Oregon.

After nearly 200 years of fire suppression, prescribed fire (sometimes written as Rx fire) is finally returning as an essential tool to protect our forested landscapes. What are the steps to getting there? What are the hurdles to overcome? Our featured stories from Margo Robbins, Ali Freedlund, Mitchell Danforth, and Kyle Keegan offer wisdom and practical know-how from their perspectives as: a Yurok and cultural fire program director; a nonprofit program director; a landowner; and an ecological field observer.

There is also plenty of news worthy of celebration in these pages. Richard Gienger’s Diggin’ In column describes the transfer of 523 acres of intact forest in northwestern Mendocino to the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council! This land that Sinkyone people were forcibly removed from generations ago will once again be known as Tc’ih-Leh-Dun (meaning “Fish Run Place” in the Sinkyone language) and protected under Indigenous stewardship.

In other good news, Matt Simmons from EPIC reports on the progress made towards a complete rewrite of the extremely outdated management plan for Jackson State Demonstration Forest. We also welcome guest columnist Michael Furniss, who summarizes a huge collaborative victory that has secured much better forest management rules for 10 million acres of private forestland in Oregon.

In these challenging times, there are so many actions we can take to positively impact our communities. We hope these pages inspire you as much as they have us. Please engage and support the great work of our partner groups! You can make a donation to any of our over 40 partner groups by visiting treesfoundation.org/partner-groups.

For the wild,

Jeri Fergus, Mona Provisor, and Kerry Reynolds