Sara Clark Leads Panel Discussion at Yosemite Environmental Law Conference About Beneficial Fire

November 18, 2022

At the fall 2022 Environmental Law Conference, SMW partner Sara Clark moderated a panel titled “Restoring Beneficial Fire in California.” The conference, sponsored by the California Lawyers Association, is held every year at Yosemite National Park.

Panel participants Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Craig Thomas, and Don Hankins discussed the history of fire exclusion in California and the resulting impacts on ecosystems, communities, and the economy. They discussed recent efforts to return beneficial fire to California ecosystems, and ongoing challenges related to permitting, workforce, lack of access, Indigenous sovereignty, and agency culture.

California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire, a detailed report covering these and other topics was published in March 2022 by the California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force and is available online. For additional background, see these previous posts about beneficial fire:

• LA Times Op-Ed: Why Forest Managers Need to Team Up with Indigenous Fire Practitioners (Aug. 2022)
• How Public Agencies Can Support Beneficial Fire Use (March 2022)
• Tribes Look to Expand Cultural Burning to Restore Traditional Practices and Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats (September 2021)
• Karuk Tribe Releases “Good Fire” Report, Addressing Barriers and Solutions to Increasing Cultural Burning (July 2021)

For more information, please contact Sara Clark.