Good fire: For Land Management

Hunting aid/feed enhancement/ habitat tending:

  • Chaparral burns in fall for new growth to attract deer

  • Coastal redwoods/meadowy-grasslands burns in the fall to clear land for larger game

Specific plant growth or quality improvement tool:

  • Chaparral burns in the spring for preparing plots

  • Aiding in nutrient cycling by handling debris

  • Supports pest and disease control

Fuels management tool:

  • Chaparral spring burns to clear brush

  • Inland coniferous forests burns in fall for fuels and forest management on longer time scales (every 8–12 years)

Returning Good Fire to San Luis Obispo County

In collaboration with CAL FIRE, the City of San Luis Obispo, and local fire services, the ytt Northern Chumash Tribe led a cultural burn at Johnson Ranch in June 2024. The goals: promote native grassland health, reduce invasive species, and reconnect the community with ancestral stewardship. These burns are just the beginning of restoring a tradition of tending the land through fire.

Read about the 2024 cultural burns here:

THE TRIBUNE, JUNE 24, 2024 - “NORTHERN CHUMASH TRIBE HOLDS FIRST SLO COUNTY CULTURAL BURN IN GENERATIONS. ‘LIKE COMING HOME’”

THE TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 22, 2024 - “‘GOOD FIRE IS MEDICINE.’ YTT NORTHERN CHUMASH TRIBE TO LEAD CULTURAL BURN IN SLO”

Good fire is more than fuel management — it is ceremony, resilience, and healing. The ytt Northern Chumash Tribe continues to advocate for land access, cultural burning, and the sharing of traditional ecological knowledge with partners across the Central Coast.

tinɨtʸu:

fire on purpose for a purpose

For over 10,000 years, Native communities, including the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash Tribe, have used cultural burns - intentional, skillful applications of fire - to nurture the land.

Cultural burning promotes biodiversity, supports native plants and animals, enhances traditional foods and materials, and strengthens the relationship between people and the environment. Today, cultural fire is recognized in California law as an essential practice for ecological health and cultural revitalization.

"Good fire" is fire with a purpose: to restore balance. Before colonization and suppression policies, 5–13 million acres of California burned naturally and intentionally every year under Native stewardship. These burns were low-intensity, rejuvenating ecosystems rather than destroying them.