Jared Dahl Aldern
Jared Dahl Aldern, Ph.D. is an environmental historian who has worked in academia, K-12 education, and tribal government. He has collaborated with and learned from Indigenous people throughout California, and he has taught Native American history at Palomar College, San Diego State University, and Stanford University.
In what we now call Southern California, fire was an everyday tool for Indigenous people for thousands of years. With wildfires happening so frequently, it is time to bring back carefully planned, well-timed, appropriately scaled, deliberate, cultural fires not only to honor Indigenous cultural practitioners, but also the land on which many of us have been settling.
The Yurok people care for all of their family members, and their kin — including condors and salmon — reciprocate the care.
The park-like forests of the 19th Century Sierra Nevada were sustained by carefully planned fires conducted by Native people.