South SFV Today

Under a clear morning sky, white smoke ascended from sage burning in an abalone shell. Joey Iyolopixtli Torres, a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, rhythmically shook a clapstick and provided a blessing in the native Chochenyo language for a burn crew at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve – 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma (JRBP'O'O). The crew, composed of professional firefighters and trained fire personnel, was about to set piles of brush ablaze in the chaparral at JRBP'O'O.

“We are finding connection to the land by opening it up with sacred fire. The fire is life,” said Torres, spiritual advisor for the Tribe. “There’s a spirit to this and a spiritual connection to everything we do. This burn is all part of an ecosystem and part of the changing of the cycles to spring as we want everything to grow back.”

Charlene Nijmeh, chairwoman of the Tribe, expressed that fire brings back balance and revitalization to the land that the Tribe has long been disconnected from due to colonization. “We are connecting back to our land and learning the old ways and traditions of our ancestors,” Nijmeh said. “This fire is part of that process.”

The pile burning at Jasper Ridge, conducted over four days in March 2024, represents a shift in wildfire prevention approach known as “two-eyed seeing” that combines Indigenous and Western practices. Tadashi Fukami initiated this shift when he became faculty director of Jasper Ridge last year.

Indigenous tribes have used low-intensity fires for millennia for land stewardship and cultural practices. However, perceived fire risk led California and other states to stop using prescribed fires focusing solely on fire prevention. This resulted in an accumulation of vegetation today, explained JRBP'O'O staff scientist Sheena Sidhu.

This intervention disrupted ecological cycles managed by Indigenous people and has contributed to increasingly intense wildfires. “We can assume that a fire will come through at some point,” Sidhu said. “By burning fuel, we’re eliminating it from the environment in a controlled way that has ecological benefit, versus an uncontrolled intense or catastrophic wildfire.”

Research shows that low-intensity fire in California’s mixed conifer forests initially provides a 60% reduction in risk of catastrophic fire, and this protective effect lasts at least six years.

The pile burning also offered researchers the opportunity to conduct studies under real land management conditions and contribute to a better understanding of effective wildfire management.

“It’s kind of a perfect marriage of stewardship for the university’s land and its research,” said Kevin Irwin, senior project manager in Land, Buildings & Real Estate (LBRE), which partnered with Jasper Ridge on the plan.

Researchers collected pre- and post-burn data, and they will be testing long-term impacts of fire and smoke on soil and small mammals, Sidhu explained. “There’s a lot of interest in this, but because wildfires have been so intense, it’s been very reactive with researchers going to where fires have happened,” Sidhu said. “This gives a little bit more space to do it in a controlled way. There certainly is a need to fill in this research gap about what’s the best way to mitigate fuels and fire risk in our area.”

Zander Opperman, ’25, is studying biology with a focus in ecology and is a living lab fellow at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Last fall, he volunteered on some controlled burns with the Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association.

Opperman assisted Sidhu in mapping the pile burns at JRBP'O'O, and he’s studying the transport and presence of heavy metals within the piles and how they transformed after the burn. Using temperature probes, he will also look at changes in the soil chemistry.

“Having good fire on the land is important to having healthy landscapes where communities can thrive,” Opperman said. 

As embers cooled from the nearly 200 piles burned in March, they left white ashen circles scattered throughout the hills at JRBP'O'O, ready for spring rains and green growth.