Jon Martin, ERI’s Director of Native American Forest and Rangeland Management Programming at the Ecological Restoration Institute, was highlighted in the Life with Fire podcast series. He talks with podcast host Amanda Monthei about his work collaborating with tribes to achieve their management goals within a Western fire management framework.

Martin’s program at the ERI provides science support and outreach on tribal lands while affirming traditional knowledge, culture, and practices. Many tribes and pueblos successfully manage their resources but face challenges addressing issues associated with adjacent federal, state, and private lands.

In this episode, Martin and Monthei speak about the different management practices between cultural and agency fire and the key question of whether the differences can be meaningfully integrated. It is a topical conversation, as the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Commission Report outlines recommendations to incorporate more Indigenous knowledge in land management.

“There has been increasing acknowledgement of cultural burning and a desire to integrate that into federal land management activities,” Martin said. “A majority of those recommendations [in the report] are about increasing tribal co-stewardship, tribal co-management. There are a lot of directives, but not a lot of clear guidance on how to do that.”