Native Health in Native Hands, Organizing for a Changing World

Round Valley Feather Dancers at the Mateel Community Center on February 18, 2023, with Diana Totten, Cultural Fire Advisor, in the background. Photo by James Ficklin-Wood

By Serenity Wood During this era of ecological crisis, how do we return more stewardship of the land to Indigenous peoples? Tribal cultural revitalization and environmental protection efforts are working towards this goal in Southern Humboldt through Native Health in Native Hands. “Awareness, love, compassion, and gratitude is what we are all feeling as we…

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Little Things Matter Most: Preparing Your Home for Embers from Wildfires

ember resistant home
This is an example of what makes a home vulnerable to embers. From top middle proceeding clockwise: 1) Tree canopies are too close together and too close to the roof edge. 2) Wooden gate attached directly to the wall allows high intensity fire to burn right up to the structure. 3) A woody shrub with dead material adjacent to the wall and the wooden fence could easily catch embers and spread flames to the home. 4) Another woody shrub with dead material, this time underneath trees, a textbook example of a ladder fuel. Also, the woody mulch would likely burn in an ember storm and spread to the shrub and the wooden fence. Photo source: http://fitzpatrickfenceandrail.com/wood-gates/

The Next Step in Maintaining Defensible Space By Mitchell Danforth, Community Fire Resources Coordinator,Trees Foundation Summer is here, and as we all know, so is wildfire season. Often wildfires are depicted as an indomitable force that sweeps across the landscape, leveling all in its path like a lava flow, and the homes left standing are…

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Prescribed Fire:
An Indigenous Perspective

Margo Robbins and others re-introducing fire to the land, starting the test fire with wormwood torches.

By Margo Robbins, Cultural Fire Management Council The following is a transcript of the talk given by Margo Robbins during a webinar hosted by Trees Foundation on Oct. 3rd, 2021 titled “Pathways to Fire Resilience.” She refers to some photos from her slideshow that don’t appear here, but you may watch her full presentation with…

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The Oak Knoll Prescribed Fire:
A Landowner’s Perspective

The Oak Knoll prescribed fire during the burn is set from the top of the hill, working downward to ensure manageable fire behavior.

By Mitchell Danforth Wildfires represent the single greatest threat to most of our inland communities, especially in recent times, as fires have grown in size, intensity, and damage to people and property. It is critical to acknowledge that fires are not good or evil, they simply are—and like floods, landslides, snowstorms, and earthquakes, how we…

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The Old Briceland Ridge Prescribed Fire:
An Ecological Field Observer’s Perspective

Female Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) forced to wake from winter hibernation in mid February on Old Briceland Ridge, 1960’ elevation in conifer/mixed forest. (She was safely relocated a few hours later.)

By Kyle Keegan Ecological Restoration Is Not a Race: Lessons from Western Pond Turtle It was a 70-degree afternoon in February 2022 on Old Briceland Ridge: 1,960 feet of elevation amidst stands of Douglas-fir, scattered Tanoak, and Chinquapin. Winds were light out of the southwest, and relative humidities were in the high 40s. Fire had…

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Ancient Eel River

Whale song interrupted by tectonic collisions. Crushing pressure of oceanic plates giving birth to a new land; accretion and incision; upthrusted matrix of igneous, submarine and metamorphic rocks: sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, clay. Earth, Air, Water, Fire. Green serpent, a temperate rainforest organism unfurled, grasping boundaries of Pacific coastlines. Outstretched arms of ancients holding sky-gardens of…

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A New Hope: The Northern Mendocino Ecosystem Recovery Alliance

November 2021 in Leggett: the organizing meeting that brought together the NM-ERA team.

Trees Foundation is thrilled to welcome Northern Mendocino Ecosystem Recovery Alliance (NM-ERA) into our Fiscal Sponsorship umbrella. Fiscal Sponsorship is one of the primary ways that Trees Foundation supports the North Coast grassroots environmental community. It allows groups to move swiftly forward in accomplishing their objectives, while we handle the 501(c)3 bookkeeping and financial reporting…

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Restoring Fire Resilience in the Mattole River Headwaters

Sanctuary Forest By Ash Brookens, Tasha McKee, and April Newlander Sanctuary Forest (SFI) holds title to more than 800 acres of forestland in the Mattole River headwaters. The group is committed to stewardship practices that will reduce wildfire risk and promote forest health, as well as improve streamflows and riparian habitat. In February 2022, SFI…

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Organizing for Fire Preparedness in Southern Humboldt

At the March 25th Fire Safety Friday event in the Garberville Town Square from left to right: Bill and Gail Eastwood, Christina Huff, Kathy Weber, Mitchell Danforth, and Arnold Piceno Sanchez (CAL FIRE Humboldt-Del Norte Forestry Aide and Defensible Space Inspector). Photo by Kerry Reynolds

Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council By Gail Eastwood Are you ready for another fire season? The Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council has been active all winter with fuel-break planning, neighborhood organizing, and community education. Here are some highlights of what we’ve been up to: We’re in the planning stages of an ambitious regional fuel break…

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