[PCA] Tribes object to fighting fire in sacred places
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Thu Sep 25 10:30:11 CDT 2008
Interesting article about land management - public land management
agencies and tribal management. This is from FAO's NWFP Digest
(http://www.fao.org/forestry/51156/en/).
Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 110
Arlington, VA 22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>
33. United States: Tribes object to fighting fire in sacred places
Source: kgw.com, Portland, USA, 8/12/2008 (Jeff Barnard, Associated Press)
Indian tribes from the Klamath River canyon are worried that the U.S.
Forest Service is violating some of their sacred lands by fighting a
remote wilderness wildfire rather than leaving it to burn naturally.
The Siskiyou and Blue 2 fires have been burning for weeks at
low intensity in the Siskiyou Wilderness on the Six Rivers National Forest
in the Siskiyou Mountains between the Klamath River and the Oregon border.
With so many fires in the area, it took weeks for the Forest
Service to send its first crew, and they adopted a strategy of burning out
a perimeter around the fires to prevent them from spreading as the weather
gets hotter, drier and windier.
Under protocols established years ago, the tribes have been
meeting with the Forest Service over the management of the fires, and Six
Rivers National Forest Supervisor Tyrone Kelley said they are being
sensitive to their concerns.
But though the fires are far from any homes, leaving them to
burn without a strong perimeter around them is not an option, given the
nearby timber resources and expectations that the fire conditions will get
worse, he said. He added that because the fires are in a wilderness area,
fire lines are built by hand, not with bulldozers.
The area is home to many prayer seats or vision quest sites
shared by the three tribes, where tribal members have fasted, prayed and
sought spiritual guidance for thousands of years. The area is also used to
gather grasses for baskets and Port Orford cedar for ceremonial buildings,
such as sweat lodges.
In the 1980s, the tribes fought a Forest Service proposal to
build a logging road through the area up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where
the tribes lost, Peters said. Later, the logging project was killed by
designation of the area as a wilderness.
For untold centuries, native people have set fires to manage
natural resources, such as the oaks that produce acorns, a major
traditional food source, and grasses used to weave baskets, Peters said.
But the tribes are worried that the fires set by the Forest
Service burn at higher intensity, destroying fisheries habitat and other
resources, and using instruments such as drip torches violates the
spirituality of the place, said Bill Tripp, eco-cultural restoration
specialist for the Karuk tribe.
For full story, please see:
www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D92H24HG1.html
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