Restoring Land with Fire
Thursday, January 16, 2025
7:00 – 8:00 PM (Via Zoom)
By Don Hankins
Professor of Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico
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Fire is an integral process in many California Ecosystems which have largely been shaped through Indigenous fire stewardship. The departure from active landscape burning resulting from land use changes, policy, and other factors has made these systems vulnerable. Restoring fire to maintain ecosystem health and other benefits is critical, but obtaining desired outcomes is nuanced. This presentation will illustrate the interconnected nature of Indigenous knowledge to shape ecocultural relationships through fire stewardship to restore ecosystems and enhance climate and social resilience.
Staff and students at the first cultural burn on the CSU Campus in over 170 years, coordinated by Don Hankins. Photo by Jake Hutchison, Enterprise-Record
Dr. Don Hankins is a Professor of Geography and Planning, as well as the University Reserves Land Stewardship Coordinator at California State University, Chico. He has a B.S. in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Davis. His interests and expertise are in pyrogeography, ecohydrology, landscape ecology, intervention ecology, conservation, environmental policy and Indigenous stewardship. Don has been involved in various aspects of environmental planning, stewardship, conservation, and regulation for a variety of organizations and agencies including federal and tribal governments. Drawing from his academic and cultural knowledge he is particularly interested in Indigenous traditional knowledge and policy and their application as a keystone process to aid in conservation and stewardship. He has published several articles specific to Indigenous prescribed fire and the social dynamics of colonization on cultural burning. Amongst other projects his current research includes longitudinal studies of fire effects on biodiversity, cultural resources and hydrology and overall environmental resiliency in riparian forests, oak woodlands, and meadows in California and Eucalypt and tea tree woodlands in the Cape York Peninsula, Australia. These projects involve working with local Indigenous communities in the respective areas to achieve a broader framework of collaborative stewardship and learning. Don has also been active in policy related to Indigenous stewardship particularly as related to fire and water management.