FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION — Before European settlers arrived in Western Montana, the Salish people traditionally managed the forest through prescribed burns, helping promote a healthy ecosystem. Now, some of those traditional practices are being brought back.
“We are now coming at it at a direction of traditional ecological knowledge and so it's unique because we're able to use Western science as well,” said Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) tribal relations specialist Kathryn McDonald.
Watch: The Salish people traditionally managed the forest through prescribed burns
McDonald says that CSKT started their fire plan back in the early 1990s, with it being adopted in 2000. Much of that plan involved consulting with the elders, bringing a methodology that aligned with not only modern-day technology and techniques, but also traditional practices to restore a healthy ecosystem. An ecosystem that was once full of food, medicine and spiritual connection.
“Traditionally, we had fire keepers. We had people who fully understood what and how to use fire; there was a connection. There were practices that these fire keepers would go through to be able to be trusted and the tribe, the camps, knew that they could trust these fire keepers. They would take people and have them help, being able to restore landscapes to cleanse landscapes. And to be able to understand that when we could, you know, come back throughout that calendar year, that our resources were taken care of, that we had a safe area to be in a reliable ecosystem that was able to provide for us,” said McDonald.
McDonald says that a key difference between traditional practices and today is the less maneuverable schedule they have for prescribing burns.
CSKT works with the surrounding agencies, like the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and private land owners, across boundaries, and with that comes a lot of coordination that is hard to time up.
“A lot of the challenges that we are having is just those unpredictable time windows that we have because of climate change,” stated McDonald.
But still, through collaboration with their partners in the area, they are implementing some traditional practices, helping the ecosystem of the past return.
“We have been doing this over the past few years is putting fire back on the landscape on the reservation. Prescribing that fire for the enhancement of blue camas, so even here on this, on this landscape,” said McDonald.
McDonald also told MTN that CSKT plans to use their fire plan as a living document, helping them adjust and pivot to the forest's needs as they arise.
