[New post] ‘Leok Po’ cultural burn workshops return to Cache Creek Nature Preserve
Carlos Guerrero posted: "The Cache Creek Conservancy, in partnership with Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, is offering its second "Leok Po" (Good Fire) workshop and burn demonstrations about the use and importance of beneficial fire using indigenous traditional ecological knowledge. " Daily Democrat
The Cache Creek Conservancy, in partnership with Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, is offering its second "Leok Po" (Good Fire) workshop and burn demonstrations about the use and importance of beneficial fire using indigenous traditional ecological knowledge.
According to Cache Creek Preserve Executive Director Nancy Ullrey, recent wildfires in California and the passage of SB332 have sparked interest in "traditional ecological knowledge," specifically about the use of low-intensity fire.
This workshop combines cultural sensitivity and awareness training about California tribal cultural practices related to "Good Fire," workforce development training for existing and future fire management professionals, and public education to build support for the use of beneficial fire using traditional ecological knowledge.
A previous workshop was held in November 2022 and drew firefighters from throughout the Sacramento region.
Leok Po (pronounced lay-oak poe) in the Wintun language means "Good Fire," Ullrey reported. This demonstration and workshop, scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10, 11 and 12, will showcase California Native American use of fire to enhance cultural resources and help restore the environment.
After the past California wildfires, fire officials throughout the state have renewed interest in using beneficial fire (formerly called prescribed burns) to reduce the severity of wildfires, Ullrey reported.
Diana Almendariz of the Cache Creek Nature Preserve's Tending and Gathering Garden's Advisory Committee bundles reeds that were used to start small fires at the 2022 Leok Po (Good Fire) demonstration set for this November. (Jim Smith/Courtesy)
In its 2022 "Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire," CAL FIRE suggested renewing the California Native American methods of conducting cultural burns as a goal to enhance the environment and forest sustainability.
The cultural sensitivity and awareness workshop, which includes a demonstration of a cultural burn, starts at 8 a.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, 34199 County Road 20, Woodland. After participants sign in, the workshop will begin with a welcome and Opening Circle, followed by cultural presentations.
Confirmed presenters for the workshop are Diana Almendariz, Maidu-Wintun natural and cultural history expert and teacher; Danny Manning, Maidu cultural expert and assistant fire chief for Greenville Rancheria Fire Department; Melinda Adams, San Carlos Apache, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies at Kansas State University and cultural fire expert; and Ali Meders-Knight, Mechoopda traditional basket weaver, expert in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and executive director of California Open Lands. Meders-Knight will present only on Friday, Nov. 10.
After a lunch break, workshop participants will be able to observe or participate in "walking the fire" cultural burn with Diana Almendariz and her family.
The cultural burn practices on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11 and 12, will be held in Brooks on Wintun Nation property. These workshops are available only to people with cultural burn or fire fighting experience.
Questions about required experience should be addressed to the Cache Creek Conservancy.
"Cultural burns benefit the environment both through wildlife mitigation and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration," Ullrey stated. "A study at the University of Cambridge stated that ecosystems can store large amounts of carbon when the frequency and intensity of the fires is 'just right;' cultural burns can stabilize soil carbon by creating charcoal deposits and increase the amount of carbon bound tightly to minerals in the soils."
This is the second year the Cache Creek Conservancy has offered Leok Po. This year, they are partnering with the Yocha Dehe Fire Department and the Wintun Nation cultural office. The Cache Creek Conservancy also has received a grant award from CAL FIRE to continue the workshops for two more years.
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