Effects of understory fire management treatments on California Hazelnut, an ecocultural resource of the Karuk and Yurok Indians in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract: "Before widespread fire exclusion policies, American Indians used broadcast understory fires or cultural burns to enhance resources integral for their livelihood and cultural practices. To restore ecocultural resources depleted from decades of fire exclusion and to reduce wildfire risks, the Karuk and the Yurok Tribes of Northwest California are leading regional collaborative efforts to expand broadcast fires and fuel reduction treatments on public, private, and Tribal lands in their ancestral territories. Through collaboration with Karuk and Yurok Tribal members and basketweavers, we evaluated the effects of broadcast fires and three fire proxy treatments on California hazelnut shrubs (Corylus cornuta var. californica) that produce highly valued ecocultural resources for basketry materials... Our results demonstrate that these fire-proxy methods are an effective means to increase the production and quality of basketry materials. Expanding the area and frequency of targeted understory fire-based forest treatments on private, public and Tribal lands in California and the Pacific Northwest would substantially increase the availability of these fire-enhanced ecocultural resources that are currently limited in supply and in high demand."