Forged by Fire with Lee Klinger: The power to mitigate wildfire risk can be in our hands

Monday on Talk of the Bay at 5pm, Host Christine Barrington asks, “Is it possible to imagine a future that is not on fire?” With the ongoing wildfires in LA, it is easy to assume we are at the mercy of our fossil fuel culture with relentless climate change burning our future. However, Monday’s guest, environmental scientist Lee Klinger, encourages people to slow down, look deeper, and consider the empowering message provided by Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

As a scientist, and Big Sur local who lost his own home to wildfire, Lee Klinger has worked closely with local Indigenous land stewards for decades, and his recent book “Forged by Fire” demonstrates that the power to mitigate wildfire risk can be in our hands. Join us to learn how to take back our future by healing our fractured relationship to the land and its original peoples.

Lee Klinger, Ph.D., is an Independent Scientist and Consultant in Big Sur, CA currently working with the Department of Natural Resources of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, and with the Mutsun Costanoan leaders at Indian Canyon Nation. Since 2005 he has served as the director of Sudden Oak Life, a movement aimed at applying fire mimicry practices to address the problems of forest decline and severe wildfires in California. He has more than forty years of experience in forestry, plant and soil ecology, atmospheric chemistry, earth system science, and nature photography, and has held scholarly appointments at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Colorado, the University of Oxford, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Geological Society of London.

Lee Klinger’s latest book: Forged by Fire: The Cultural Tending of Trees and Forests in Big Sure and Beyond

Dr. Klinger highly recommends reading: Tending the Wild M. Kat Anderson

Lee also mentions a chapter he contributed to Unlearning the Language of Conquest:Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America

For more information consult Dr. Klinger’s website/blog: Sudden Oak Life

Read Dr. Klinger’s Op-Ed to the LA Times to understand his position relative to the recent LA Wildfires and its root causes.

Contact Dr. Klinger: [email protected]

This video lecture presents clear information on how a healthy eco-system life cycle of forests requires fire: The Science and Practice of Fire Mimicry

KCET’s Tending the Wild series offers excellent programs on Indigenous practices. This film on Cultural Burning focuses on material discussed in this program.