The director of the Kuruk Tribal Natural Resources Department, July 7, has been appointed to the Biden-Harris administration by the Durland Fire Protection and Management Commission.
Bill Trip, a member of the Karuk tribe, now uses his traditional grandparents’ traditional burning skills as a resource and fuel management tool.
“Fire is good for the land and the people,” Trump said in a Karuk tribal news report about the election. “Fire is part of the natural ecosystem and a cultural component of many tribes.”
The Karuk tribe mentions that these traditional practices have been around for centuries and are among the many cultural practices that were once criminalized by state and federal laws, and that government agencies have been using “fire-fighting” in vain for more than 100 years.
“They can’t fight fires any more than they do earthquakes,” Trump said. “But you can learn to work with fire to manage the land and keep it healthy.”
The Commission’s appointment covers the effects of climate change on long-term fires and worsening fires and the number and magnitude of events in the state and the country each year.
So far this year, 3,598 fires in California, California, and the U.S. Forest Service have burned 22,905 acres. By 2021, 4,125 acres of 60,507 acres were burned. The five-year average is 3,129 fires and 63,375 acres.
A statement from the federal government said, “The commission will build on the federal government’s efforts to reduce the risk of wildfires. Changing Disaster Management Decisions and Changing Climate ‘Seasons’
Karuk’s release notes Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service are now working with tribes to better understand traditional methods of using fire to manage the land, including “how to set fire intentionally at the right time and in the right place to consume the fuel. Otherwise, it could cause a major fire in mid-summer, but Trips said “state and federal agencies still have a lot to learn.”
Other benefits of the practice include increasing the diversity of Indigenous peoples.
“The Karuk tribe is very proud of Bill Tripp. It is a great honor for the Karuk tribe to be a member of President Biden’s team and we know that Bill will help federal agencies develop better strategies to deal with the wildfires,” Karuk chairman Russell Booster Ateberry said in a statement.
Read the Karuk Tribal Release below
WASHINGTON, DC – Bill Trip, a member of the Karuk tribe and director of the Natural Resources Department, was appointed to the Biden-Haris wildlife commission yesterday. Tripp learned from his ancestors the traditional methods of using fire as a resource management tool. He is now sharing those lessons with people affected by wildfires.
“Fire is good for the land and for the people,” says Tripp. “Fire is part of the natural ecosystem and a cultural component of many tribes.”
For more than a hundred years, the teachings of Bill’s elders have been criminalized by state and federal law. State and federal agencies have decided that the solution to wildfires is to extinguish every fire from the forest to the coast.
“Agencies can burn every fire,” Trump said. You can learn to work with fire to manage and keep the land healthy.
Today, science is gaining ground on Karuk’s understanding of how to manage the earth. From CALFIRE to US Forest Service Agencies are working with tribes to better understand how fires can be deliberately started at the right time and place, otherwise the megafares will produce in mid-summer. Cultural fires and controlled fires also increase the diversity of indigenous plants and the health of plants that provide nutrients and fiber, such as bear grass and tan oak. However, Tripp said, “State and federal agencies still have a lot to learn.”
“The Karuk tribe is very proud of Bill Trip. It is a great honor for the Karuk tribe to be a member of President Biden’s team and we know that Bill will help the federal agencies develop better strategies to deal with the wildfires.”
Editor’s note, press release from the Biden administration, and more information can be found here.
