This episode features interviews with ignition specialist and ecosystem scientist Sonja Leverkus; forester Dave Gill; wildfire and fuel management consultant John Davies; Vernon Fire Chief David Lind; South Okanagan BC Parks supervisor Wendy Pope; Canadian Forest Service research scientist and Indigenous fire stewardship expert Amy Cardinal Christianson; and Fire Keeper and former wildland firefighter Joe Gilchrist. We discuss cultural burning, prescribed fire, reducing wildfire risk, and balancing multiple values on the land in the Okanagan Valley and BC.“Listening to Fire Knowledges in and around the Okanagan Valley” was created by Judith Burr as her master's thesis project in the Digital Arts & Humanities theme of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. This work was supported by UBC-Okanagan’s feminist digital humanities lab, the AMP Lab. This project was also supported in part by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) through UBC Okanagan’s “Living with Wildfire” Project. This podcast was created on the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation.SHOW NOTESThese show notes are approximately in order of mention, rather than alphabetical. See them cited to specific moments of the episode using the episode transcript.The music in this episode is from Blue Dot Sessions, and you can find specific tracks cited in the transcript: https://app.sessions.blue.See my full interviews with Sonja Leverkus and John Davies for more about prescribed burning best practices. They will be posted here by fall 2022: listeningtofirepodcast.ca.Westland clip used with permission from UBC Open Collections. Mike Halleran, “Westland: ‘Black and Green: A Film on Prescribed Fire in British Columbia,’” video, Westland, 1984, UBC Open Collections, 10.14288/1.0109062.“Prescribed burning in British Columbia by year and area” [Chart], from Kira M. Hoffman, “Our Future with Fire: Barriers and Opportunities for the Revitalization of Fire Stewardship,” Accessed May 24, 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QD3qezRW7o.“Total provincial silvicultural prescribed burning declined from about 60,000 ha per year in the early 1970’s to approximately 17,000 ha per year in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.”: John Parminter, “Burning Alternatives Panel: A Review of Fire Ecology, Fire History and Prescribed Burning in Southern British Columbia,” Presented to the Sixth Annual Fire Management Symposium Southern Interior Fire Management Committee (Kelowna, B.C., May 29, 1991), https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/pubs/pubs/1115.htm.William Cronon, Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, Book, Whole (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1996).Alex Wilson, The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez (Second Edition), (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2019).Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz et al., “BC Community Forest Perspectives and Engagement in Wildfire Management” (Report to the Union of BC Municipalities, First Nations’ Emergency Services Society, BC Community Forest Association and BC Wildfire Service, September 2020), https://www.preventionweb.net/files/74613_74613bccommunityengagementinwildfir.pdf.BC Government, “Community Forest Agreements,” Accessed May 2022, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/forest-tenures/timber-harvesting-rights/community-forest-agreements.United Nations Environment Programme (2022). Spreading like Wildfire – The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires. A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment (Nairobi), https://www.unep.org/resources/report/spreading-wildfire-rising-threat-extraordinary-landscape-fires.More Resources: FireSmart Canada, https://firesmartcanada.ca/; Blazing the Trail, https://firesmartcanada.ca/product/blazing-the-trail-celebrating-indigenous-fire-stewardship.; Nature Conservancy, Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX), http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPractices/FireLandscapes/HabitatProtectionandRestoration/Training/TrainingExchanges/Pages/fire-training-exchanges.aspx; Karuk Climate Change Projects, “Fire Works!,” https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/fire-works; NC State University, “Prescribed Burn Associations,” https://sites.cnr.ncsu.edu/southeast-fire-update/prescribed-burn-associations; Firesticks Alliance, https://www.firesticks.org.au. More Fire Podcasts: Amy Cardinal Christianson and Matthew Kristoff (Hosts), Good Fire Podcast, https://yourforestpodcast.com/good-fire-podcast; Amanda Monthei (host), Life with Fire Podcast, https://lifewithfirepodcast.com; Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski (hosts), “On Fire: Camas, Cores, and Spores (Part 1),” Future Ecologies Podcast, August 29, 2018, https://www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe1-5-on-fire-pt-1.
