Reviving Indigenous Fire Management as a Strategy Against Escalating Wildfires

Once exceptional, large-scale wildfires are now a regular occurrence across Canada’s summer months. Each year, millions of hectares of forest burn from coast to coast, releasing vast amounts of carbon, threatening communities, and reshaping ecosystems.

In 2023, Canada experienced its most extensive wildfire season on record, with more than 15 million hectares scorched and smoke spreading across North America and even reaching Europe.[1]

Scientists link this escalation to rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and shifting precipitation patterns driven by climate change. Yet the crisis is not only ecological; it is social and economic, affecting rural livelihoods, Indigenous communities, and national health systems.

The Ecological Necessity of Fire

Fire, despite its destructive reputation, plays a fundamental and beneficial role in maintaining the health, diversity, and resilience of many ecosystems. In Canada and other fire-adapted regions, periodic burning is not a disaster but an essential natural process that sustains life in complex ways.

One of the primary benefits of fire is nutrient cycling. When vegetation burns, the organic matter locked in leaves, needles, and woody debris is released back into the soil as ash. This ash is rich in minerals such as calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, which act as natural fertilizers. The removal of accumulated litter also allows sunlight and rainfall to reach the soil surface, stimulating microbial activity and new plant growth. Without occasional burning, nutrients can become trapped in undecomposed plant material, leading to a decline in soil fertility and reduced productivity.

Fire also stimulates plant regeneration and diversity. Many species have evolved to depend on heat or smoke cues for reproduction. For example, lodgepole pine and jack pine produce serotinous cones that only open when exposed to high temperatures, releasing seeds onto nutrient-rich ash beds where competition is minimal. Other plants, such as certain grasses and wildflowers, germinate more readily after fire removes the canopy cover and exposes the soil to light. This regeneration process promotes a dynamic mosaic of habitats at different successional stages, supporting greater biodiversity across the landscape.

Fire can be a beneficial tool to controlling disease and pests. In dense forests, pathogens and insects can spread rapidly among crowded or weakened trees. Low to moderate-intensity fires, by thinning these stands, remove dead or diseased material and create space for healthier trees to grow. This natural thinning reduces the likelihood of large-scale infestations such as bark beetle outbreaks, which have devastated vast areas of North American forests. In this way, periodic fire acts as a cleansing mechanism that maintains forest vitality.

A fire can also quickly transform the landscape, bringing new opportunities for wildlife. Fresh grasses and shoots emerge from the nutrient-rich soil, drawing grazers such as deer, elk, and moose to feed on the young vegetation. The more open terrain also benefits birds and small mammals, which use standing dead trees and fallen logs for shelter and nesting. As these prey species return, predators soon follow, taking advantage of the renewed abundance. In this way, fire helps reestablish the intricate balance between plants and animals, breathing new life into ecosystems that might otherwise stagnate.

In essence, fire functions as a powerful regenerative force within ecosystems, driving the continual recycling of nutrients, stimulating the renewal of plant and animal species, and helping to maintain ecological balance through the natural control of disease and pests. By periodically clearing dense vegetation and returning minerals to the soil, it fosters the development of diverse habitats that support a wide range of species while also preventing the dangerous accumulation of dry fuels that can lead to catastrophic wildfires. When it burns at the right frequency and intensity, fire does not act as a destructive intruder but rather as one of nature’s most ancient and effective architects, shaping and sustaining the very environments upon which countless forms of life depend.

A Natural Process Turned Destructive

What was once a cyclical and beneficial process has shifted into a pattern of unprecedented destruction, as the extreme wildfires have become a prevalent element of North American summers. 

These fires we now face, are not exactly the low, renewing burns that once enriched soil and sustained species diversity. On the contrary, they are large, fast-moving events driven by human influence and climatic instability. Prolonged droughts, rising temperatures, and erratic precipitation have created landscapes primed for combustion, while decades of fire suppression have allowed enormous amounts of dry vegetation to accumulate. 

For much of the twentieth century, fire suppression was the dominant approach to forest management, rooted in the belief that all fire was harmful and should be extinguished as quickly as possible.

When ignition finally occurs, whether by lightning or human activity, the result is an uncontrollable high intensity fire that can spread for hundreds of kilometers, and the ecological consequences are profound.

In some scenarios, the heat is so extreme that it vaporizes soil moisture and destroys the organic layers essential for regeneration. 

Trees that once depended on fire for reproduction, now face conditions in which their seedlings cannot survive. 

Repeated burning in short intervals pushes ecosystems beyond their capacity to recover, and transform forested regions into open grasslands or shrublands. 

Wildlife is forced to flee, sometimes into habitats that cannot sustain their populations, and the intricate web of species interactions that fire once maintained is now strained by the severity and scale of modern events.

Consequences for humans are equally significant, from repeated evacuations, to property loss, long-term health effects of smoke exposure, and financial costs, wildfires disrupt the lives of thousands each year.

“Lytton was a 'magical' place. Then it burned to the ground:” 

Cultural Burns

For millennia, Indigenous peoples across the Pacific Northwest shaped landscapes with fire. These practices, variously called cultural burning, traditional burning, or Indigenous fire stewardship, were systematic tools for managing vegetation, supporting food systems, and reducing the likelihood of catastrophic blazes. 

Over the past two centuries, federal policies and settler suppression erased much of that knowledge from public land management. British Columbia was actually the first province in Canada to ban cultural burns with the Bush Fire Act of 1874. Today, under mounting climate pressure and increasingly severe summer fire seasons, Indigenous fire stewardship is returning to policy debates and field practice as both a cultural imperative and an empirically supported strategy for landscape resilience.

A Conversation with Fire Keepers

Rory Colwell, Fuel Management Superintendent, BC Wildfire Service, discusses the practice of cultural burning with two members of the Interior Salish Fire Keepers Society, Harry Spahan (Nlaka’pamux Nation) and Joe Gilchrist (Skeetchestn Indian Band) in Merritt BC

Listen to:

“Fire Ecology (WILDFIRES & INDIGENOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT) Mega Encore with Dr. Gavin Jones & Dr. Amy Christianson”

Cultural burns are not only ecological interventions but also vessels for the transmission of knowledge and traditions across generations. Elders guide younger members of the community through each stage of the burn, teaching them to read the land, interpret ecological signals, and apply fire with precision.

After creating fire guards by clearing or digging the soil to mark the boundaries of the planned burn, and carefully studying weather conditions, torches are often used to start small flames. These fires, unlike the out of control mega fires, move gently and clear debris and smaller vegetation while leaving the larger trees intact. After the burn, the site is watched closely until the fire is completely out.

Bridging Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Fire Science.

At the heart of the exponentially devastating wildfire crisis lies a growing collaboration between Indigenous communities and government agencies, bridging traditional ecological knowledge and Western fire science to create more resilient landscapes.

Government agencies, which traditionally focused on fire suppression, are increasingly recognizing the value of prescribed burns and are now seeking to integrate them into land management strategies. While Indigenous communities bring local traditional knowledge, government agencies contribute logistical support, technical expertise, and regulatory oversight to ensure safety and compliance with environmental standards. 

In 2024, 48 projects were implemented in British Columbia, with a total of 3,412.8 hectares treated. Of these 48 projects, more than 21 burn plans were developed or codeveloped with First Nations.[2] 

The success of these  projects underscores the potential for collaborative efforts between Indigenous communities and governmental agencies in restoring fire as a natural and beneficial force in the landscape.

There were 135 burns being planned for 2025 in British Columbia.

[3]

The Owl Creek Cultural Burn Success

Conducted in July 2022 by the Lil’wat Nation in Mount Currie, the Owl Creek Cultural Burn is an excellent example of the revitalization of Indigenous fire stewardship within British Columbia and the resulting benefits. The burn aimed to enhance berry production, to  improve grizzly bear habitat, and was supported by the BC Wildfire Service.[4]

“With the Owl Creek cultural burn, we used a more high-intensity fire and have noticed a lot of growth happening already, probably about six to eight centimeters growth of the berry bushes. The trees we planted in the burnt areas are growing much better than those where we did not burn, further creating ecosystems that will be able to better support wildlife like grizzly bears, as well as food and medicinal plants.”[5]

The resurgence of Indigenous fire stewardship offers a path forward amid the intensifying wildfire crisis in Canada. As the frequency and severity of wildfires continue to rise, embracing Indigenous fire knowledge alongside scientific methods provides a model for sustainable land management, one that honors traditional expertise while addressing the pressing ecological and social challenges of our time.

About the Author

Kimberley has a M.Sc from the University of Montreal. She is passionate about biodiversity and Indigenous peoples' land rights. Kimberley has been working with NGOs for over five years as a researcher, writer, and translator.

Sources:

[1] “Measuring the economic cost of wildfires.” Statistics Canada, 6 Aug. 2025, https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/8369-measuring-economic-cost-wildfires.

[2] “Cultural and Prescribed Fire.” Government of British Columbia, last updated 25 Apr. 2025, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/prevention/prescribed-burning.

[3],[4] “What is Prescribed Fire?” Cultural Burning & Prescribed Fire,https://prescribedfire.ca/cultural-burning/

[5] “Time Again for Fire: Utilizing Cultural Burning in Forest Management.” Líl̓wat Business Group, 2024, https://lilwatbusiness.ca/time-again-for-fire-utilizing-cultural-burning-in-forest-management/