This series focuses on historically underrepresented communities who have always protected, defended and cared for our lands. A variety of scholars, professionals and leaders will share long-held generational knowledge in harmony with land stewardship. These webinars intend to sow new seeds of thought and understanding into our collective consciousness. Embracing all natural resource perspectives and practices will lead our disciplines forward into a more just, equitable and inclusive present and future.

This series is open to the public and we welcome all stewards! If you are a friend outside CSU or do not receive Warner College email announcements, and would like to receive weekly webinar emails with the access links, please complete the form below. Your email will only be used for 2021 spring webinar communications.

Indigenous Peoples across North America and around the world have prospered through pro-active relationships with fire, manifested in sophisticated fire systems since time immemorial. These eco-cultural systems have shaped the plant and animal dynamics we see across large landscapes today.  Contemporary systems of fire exclusion across the US and local communities that do not practice active fire stewardship are relatively new. While Native Americans have been persecuted and punished throughout the past century for attempts to practice fire stewardship in their ancestral territories, there is a growing recognition that the dominant contemporary system is under strain. Indigenous Peoples have a role in bringing fire back into balance, even if a new equilibrium is needed under the influence of climate change. Started in 2015, the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network (IPBN) is a support network among Native American communities that are revitalizing their traditional fire cultures in a contemporary context. Administered by The Nature Conservancy, the IPBN is rooted in the principles of the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and it is led by its Leadership Team of cultural fire practitioners from participating tribes.  Margo Robbins, co-founder of the IPBN and cultural leader in the Yurok Tribe said, ““Our culture is completely dependent upon fire. Without fire, our culture will not survive. It’s that simple.”

Mary Huffman received her B.S. degree in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana, her M.S. in Botany from Miami University in Ohio and her Ph.D. in fire science from Colorado State University.  Her doctoral dissertation focused on connections among traditional fire knowledge, community-based fire management and the fire ecology of Ocote pine (Pinus oocarpa) in Chiapas, Mexico. Mary is a career-long employee of The Nature Conservancy, specializing in prescribed fire management and fire management partnerships.  She currently serves as the Director of the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network.  Mary would like to acknowledge María Fernández-Giménez and Kathleen Galvin of Colorado State University for helping to broaden the very definition of conservation to include the Indigenous Peoples and traditional practitioners whose management systems continue to shape many of the world’s ecosystems today.