Indigenous cultural burn near Osoyoos revives traditional fire stewardship – Okanagan

Smoke rising over the grasslands west of Osoyoos this week is part of a carefully planned burn aimed at doing more than reducing wildfire risk.

The multi-day burn in the Nighthawk Road area is also helping revive Indigenous cultural fire practices that were suppressed for generations.

The Lower Similkameen Indian Band is working with partners, including the B.C. Wildfire Service, on the approximately 160-hectare burn.

Julia Peterson, a councillor with the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, says the project is about bringing traditional knowledge back together with modern wildfire management.

“It was abolished, you know, by previous law, and so we’re really trying to bring those practices back, and combine these together with Western science,” Peterson said.

For Peterson, the work is also deeply connected to ceremony and the relationship between the land and the community.

“Ceremony connects us to land, it connects us to the animals, to the water,” she said. “This is bringing this ceremonial practice back into our community.”

The controlled fire is also intended to improve the health of the grasslands by clearing overgrowth, encouraging native grasses and improving habitat for wildlife.

Daryl Gibb, who owns the Nighthawk RV Park near the burn area, has seen how quickly wildfire can threaten the region.

“At the bottom of the hill there was a lot of sagebrush that choked out the grass,” Gibb said. “Getting rid of that sagebrush will definitely bring the grass back again.”

Gibb also hopes the work will help reduce the risk to nearby communities and properties.

“About six or eight years ago, there was a big fire burning in the Cascades just across the river from us,” he said. “And then there’s been little local ones close.”

The project is also an example of First Nations and government agencies working together on wildfire preparedness.

Justin Smith, with Lower Similkameen Indian Band Emergency Management, says wildfire does not respect the boundaries between jurisdictions.

“Everybody’s in the same boat,” Smith said. “The fire doesn’t recognize the boundary. The fire doesn’t even recognize the border. It just goes where it wants to go.”

That makes cooperation particularly important as communities across the region work to reduce wildfire fuels and prepare for increasingly severe fire seasons.

Peterson says the Nighthawk Road burn is only part of a larger need for treatment across the region.

“We still have many other areas that need this kind of treatment to bring safety to the communities, both on and off reserve,” she said.

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