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The severe impacts of wildfires are becoming ever more apparent. Meanwhile, California Indian tribes have been using fire for centuries to maintain ecosystems. Ron Goode (Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe) and Beth Rose Middleton (University of California, Davis) will share their experiences from recent cultural burns in California, and explain how the traditional Native American practice of burning grasslands and forests improves the resilience of ecosystems.
The Honorable Ron W. Goode is a Veteran of the United States Army and a retired Community College Prof. in Ethnic Studies. Ron was inducted in the Clovis Hall of Fame for his work in education and community service in 2002. Mr. Goode has published an ethnobotany book on native plants and resources and in 2017-2018 Ron was the Coordinating Lead Author for the Tribal Indigenous Communities Climate Change Assessment as a new report of the California 4th Climate Change Assessment. Mr. Goode volunteers his time with five collaborative and tribal forums enhancing the ecological environment, watersheds, and cultural resources of the forests, Parks and tribal lands. Ron and his tribal members have been restoring cultural resource sites over the past twenty five years.
Dr. Beth Rose Middleton (Afro-Caribbean, Eastern European) is Associate Professor and Chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis and a SW CASC investigator. Her research centers on Native environmental policy and Native activism for site protection using conservation tools. Broader research interests include intergenerational trauma and healing, rural environmental justice, Indigenous analysis of climate change, Afro-indigeneity, and qualitative GIS.