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In our second<a href="https://www.mysteryranch.com/backbone-series">&nbsp;Backbone Scholarship</a>&nbsp;episode—sponsored by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=cl&amp;merchant_id=dd2bb191-351c-479c-9877-7efa128a6335&amp;website_id=d8132395-0578-4694-9ba8-65dc5a6ef74a&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysteryranch.com%2Fwomens-hotshot-wildland-fire-pack" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mystery Ranch</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://wildfire-experience.org/">American Wildfire Experience</a>—we chatted with Nez Perce wildland firefighter Riston Bullock, who spoke about his experiences working in fire over the last decade, about the challenges that have come up as he has gotten older and become a father, as well as the challenges of the Nez Perce Reservation to have more authority over their own fire management. Riston also spoke about his experience of seeing a fatality on a wildfire last summer, as well as the processing he&#8217;s had to do in the aftermath of this incident.&nbsp;



As we wrap up this year of Life with Fire, we want to thank Mystery Ranch Backpacks for the ongoing support not only of this podcast, but of storytelling in the wildland fire space more generally. For one stellar example, we cannot recommend their series on Sasha Berleman (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev-QLb43Wvw">&#8220;The Fire Poppy&#8221;</a>) enough. Go check it out if you&#8217;re looking for something to do in these wierd days between Christmas and New Years.&nbsp;

Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Riston Bullock

Life with Fire Podcast,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mysteryranch.com/holiday-gift-guide?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=1630236368&amp;utm_content=64710295800&amp;utm_term=mystery%20ranch%20backpacks&amp;gadid=683198887643&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAg9urBhB_EiwAgw88mU6aF_2-vql0yjlFYSxNM7nLjuMx2GmiOttvzAupnSAeRNK6TorQYxoCmZIQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mystery Ranch Backpacks</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://wildfire-experience.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Wildfire Experience (AWE)</a>&nbsp;have joined forces to bring you this episode with Junior Lazaro—a wildland firefighter who received a Backbone Scholarship from AWE to share his experiences of fire through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mysteryranch.com/backbone-series">Mystery Ranch Backbone Series</a>&nbsp;and Life with Fire Podcast.&nbsp;



Junior is a young wildland firefighter who shared his experiences of working in fire in his third season on a BLM handcrew out of eastern Oregon. In this episode, he spoke to some of his challenges and triumphs in pursuing wildland firefighting, and spoke especially to the role his father had in inspiring him to pursue this job.&nbsp;



We appreciate both AWE&#8217;s and Mystery Ranch&#8217;s commitment to sharing the experiences of those working on the fireline, especially those from communities often underrepresented in content/media around wildland fire. This episode is the first of two that center the operational experiences of folks whose perspectives are not well represented in wildfire media.&nbsp;

Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Junior Lazaro

Well&nbsp;we finally got a chance to speak with Marek Smith, who is the North American Fire Director for the Nature Conservancy and the co-director of the Fire Networks, which houses the Fire Adapted Learning Network, the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) and the Fire Learning Networks. Before I get too far into this intro, I do want to note that the Fire Network has a new website that is a veritable clearinghouse of good fire resources, knowledge and anecdotes—I highly recommend you go check it out!



<a href="https://firenetworks.org/fire-networks-resources/">New Fire Networks Website!!</a>



Marek has quite a background of working in good fire implementation and policy, and recently represented 501 c3 organizations with expertise in forest management and environmental conservation on the Wildfire Commission which released its report and recommendations back in September.



In his role with the Nature Conservancy, Marek works to, quite simply, bring fire to the people while leading an organization that prioritizes our collective relationship with fire. All of TNC&#8217;s programming through the Fire Networks is focused on developing more avenues for people to connect with fire, whether by exchanging knowledge/training,&nbsp; sharing resources or empowering individuals and communities to build resilience to or change their relationships with fire.



We covered some ground with this one—not only about his role in the Wildfire Commission, but also his work with the Fire Networks, Amanda&#8217;s experience at her first TREX back in October, and the future of the Fire Networks. This was such a fun conversation that was a long time coming, and we were left feeling like we could have talked to Marek for much, much longer than we did! Maybe a part two is in order&#8230;.



Don&#8217;t forget to check out the<a href="https://firenetworks.org/fire-networks-resources/">&nbsp;Fire Networks&#8217;</a>&nbsp;new website!



You can also learn more about the new partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Forest Service&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/newsroom/tnc-usda-rx-fire-expand-workforce-partnership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;



Looking for Christmas gifts for the outdoorsperson/backpacker/firefighter/hunter/skier in your life? Well boy howdy you should probably check out Mystery Ranch&#8217;s selection of packs, made for every hobby you could possibly need a pack for.



I&#8217;m a huge fan of Mystery Ranch packs and am an especially big fan of their<a href="https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=cl&amp;merchant_id=dd2bb191-351c-479c-9877-7efa128a6335&amp;website_id=d8132395-0578-4694-9ba8-65dc5a6ef74a&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysteryranch.com%2Fsaddle-peak-pack%3Fquantity%3D1%26color%3DBlack">&nbsp;Saddle Peak ski pack</a>&nbsp;and their<a href="https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=cl&amp;merchant_id=dd2bb191-351c-479c-9877-7efa128a6335&amp;website_id=d8132395-0578-4694-9ba8-65dc5a6ef74a&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysteryranch.com%2Fhip-monkey">&nbsp;Hip Monkey pack</a>, which is a glorified fanny pack that is durable as hell and has SO MUCH SPACE. I use it for long days on my mountain bike, and also recently used it basically as a purse during a three-week trip backpacking around Italy.&nbsp;



Timestamps:



03:55 &#8211; Episode Introduction



05:57 &#8211; Process For The Wildfire Commission



08:02 &#8211; Themes In Marek&#8217;s Work



09:29 &#8211; Work Groups Within The Commission&nbsp;



10:02 &#8211; Marek&#8217;s Current Action Items



10:52 &#8211; Collaborative Approach To Recommendations&nbsp;



12:11 &#8211; An All-Society Approach



13:02 &#8211; Multi-Year Funding



13:58 &#8211; Community Wildfire Defense Grants



15:21 &#8211; Wildfire Adaptation PODs



17:13 &#8211; Focus On What Is In Reach



18:14 &#8211; Community Level Practitioners



19:00 &#8211; The Fire Networks Partnership



21:24 &#8211; The Indigenous Peoples Burning Network



22:37 &#8211; Proactive Community Building



23:47 &#8211; Amanda&#8217;s Experience On TREX



24:56 &#8211; The PIO Position



25:48 &#8211; Current Happenings At Nature Conservancy



27:21 &#8211; Indigenous TREX Experiences



28:41 &#8211; Women In Prescribed Fire Training



30:09 &#8211; How To Get Involved



31:04 &#8211; Ongoing Efforts

Fire For The People with the Nature Conservancy’s Marek Smith

The Wildfire Mitigation and Management Commission, established in 2022 at the behest of Congress following the 2021 Infrastructure Act, recently released a substantial <a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/wfmmc-final-report-09-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> highlighting recommendations that will shape the future of wildfire policy and action in the US. Fifty commission members were charged with creating the recommendations, one of which was Kelly Martin—who is a founding member of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighter organization and a longtime wildland firefighter. We had the chance to chat with Kelly about the commission, and she was able to provide us a glimpse into the process and efforts behind their whopping 340-page report. We spoke explicitly about how the recommendations relate to wildland firefighters, as well as what Kelly was able to bring to the commission with her extensive background working in wildland fire operations.



We&#8217;re hoping to release a few more episodes about the commission report, which will focus on other recommendations and themes—including community resilience/adaptation, Indigenous burning and scaling up projects that reduce wildfire risk. Stay tuned!



Kelly is an outspoke advocate for wildland firefighters through her work at <a href="https://www.grassrootswildlandfirefighters.com/">Grassroots Wildland Firefighters</a>, which you should definitely check out if you haven&#8217;t already.&nbsp;



This episode is brought to you by <a href="https://www.mysteryranch.com/">Mystery Ranch</a>, which makes the best fire pack in the business—we will die on this hill! If you&#8217;re looking for a fire pack (or a backpacking pack, or a briefcase, or a hunting pack, or a&#8230;well you get it), then Mystery Ranch is the place to go. You&#8217;ll probably never have to buy a pack again!

The Wildfire Commission Report with Kelly Martin

You&#8217;ve probably heard of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) but how about Traditional Ecological *Practices*?



In this episode, we spoke with Dr. Melinda Adams of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe about translating Indigenous knowledge into Indigenous-led action—which means giving Indigenous practitioners the &#8220;space, opportunity and action&#8221; to see their knowledge systems play out on the landscape. We spoke about a whole lot more than that, though; we heard about Dr. Adams&#8217; PhD work at UC-Davis, about her new assistant professor position at the University of Kansas, about &#8220;rematriating&#8221; fire (bringing &nbsp;women back into cultural fire decision making) and generally bringing more humility into the use of fire. We also spoke at length about her recent paper titled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/eco.2022.0085">&#8220;Solastalgia to Soliphilia: Cultural Fire, Climate Change, and Indigenous Healing,&#8221;&nbsp;</a>which she co-authored with Erica Tom and Chairman Ron Goode of the North Fork Mono Tribe (who coined the term &#8220;Traditional Ecological Practices&#8221;).



A bit more about Melinda: As a fire scholar, Dr. Adams concentrates on encouraging public participation in prescribed and controlled burns, getting more people fire certified, and placing more Indigenous-led cultural fire to the ground with allies, agencies, and Tribal members— “decolonizing fire” as she describes. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Haskell Indian Nations University (one of thirty-seven tribal colleges located across the United States), her Master of Science from Purdue University, and PhD from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the intersection of ecology, environmental science, environmental policy and Native American studies; through her research and work, she envisions a future where cultural fire is used as a climate adaptation strategy while mitigating the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfire.



This is an important episode for those interested in Indigenous knowledge, understanding and practice of land stewardship—including the use of fire—but is absolutely essential for anyone who works in an agency or organization that emphasizes the importance of TEK, and especially for those who recognize a need for a different and more humble approach to fire and active stewardship. &nbsp;



Beyond that, if you&#8217;re looking for an antidote to your climate grief, look no further than this conversation with Melinda. Her energy for the work is incredible, and is bolstered by countless other Indigenous practitioners and allies who envision a more sustainable, Indigenous-led, community-based future of land stewardship and fire use.&nbsp;



Timestamps:&nbsp;



07:17 &#8211; Introduction



09:42 &#8211; Fire in Tribe&#8217;s Cultural Stories



10:35 &#8211; Soliphilia



12:32 &#8211; California and Tribal Recognition



15:19 &#8211; Healing Powers of Cultural Fire



17:34 &#8211; State Agencies Invited to Cultural Fire Demos



18:37 &#8211; Wildfires and A Lack of Relationship with the Land



21:20 &#8211; Community Education



23:30 &#8211; Generational Protocol and Practices



24:46 &#8211; Traditional Ecological Practices



27:25 &#8211; Melinda&#8217;s Teaching and Her Students&#8217; Focus



31:50 &#8211; The Humble Fire Approach



34:12 &#8211; Learn Homeland History Where You Burn



36:15 &#8211; Caring for the Place You Live



38:28 &#8211; Collaboration with Different Tribes



39:31 &#8211; Storytelling to Translate Scientific Findings



44:02 &#8211; Final Thoughts from Melinda

Humble Fire and Traditional Ecological Practices with Cultural Fire Scholar, Dr. Melinda Adams

Life with Fire Podcast

Life with Fire Podcast

Episodes

Ep. 59—Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Riston Bullock

Ep. 58—Rapid Fire Episode with Mystery Ranch Backbone Scholarship Winner Junior Lazaro

Ep. 57—Fire For The People with the Nature Conservancy’s Marek Smith

Ep. 56—The Wildfire Commission Report with Kelly Martin

Ep. 55—Humble Fire and Traditional Ecological Practices with Cultural Fire Scholar, Dr. Melinda Adams

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