Indigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE) with Dr. Amy Christianson

Image description: Indigenous fire scientist, Dr. Amy Christianson, wears a red shirt and a fur-lined hooded parka and smiles toward camera. The Ologies logo is superimposed in the lower right corner.

Image description: Indigenous fire scientist, Dr. Amy Christianson, wears a red shirt and a fur-lined hooded parka and smiles toward camera. The Ologies logo is superimposed in the lower right corner.

Cultural burns. Prescribed blazes. A healthy forest. What exactly is “good fire?” Let’s ask Indigenous fire scientist Dr. Amy Christianson, who is a co-host of the podcast ...Good Fire. This wonderfully generous and informed scholar took a quick break from her Canadian wilderness vacation to fill me in on Indigenous history, collaborations between Western science & First Nations elders, Aboriginal thoughts on cultural burns, flim-flam, evacuations, snowmelt, hunting strategies, land stewardship, happy trees, climate strategies, and the social science behind wildfire education. Also learning from Native wildfire fighters. Huge thanks to her and Matt Kristoff -- who also hosts the Your Forest Podcast -- for allowing us to use excerpts from their interview to launch Good Fire. Subscribe to both podcasts to get more ecological knowledge in your ears. 

For a wildfire primer, head to last week’s Fire Ecology episode with Dr. Gavin Jones

Listen via Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

Culture, EarthAlie Ward