‘Good Fire: Tending Native Lands’ Burns Bright at the Oakland Museum of California

For anyone devastated or dismayed by the last decade of catastrophic megafires in California, there is no more hopeful story than that of Native Californians reviving their use of intentional, beneficial fire. By using “good fire,” they are leaving forests, fields and brushlands more resilient to future wildfires. They also use fire to regenerate ecosystems, spurring the regrowth of plants that serve as food, medicine and basketry materials.

At Oakland Museum of California, a new exhibit called Good Fire: Tending Native Lands traces the past, present and hoped-for future of Indigenous Californians’ use of fire.

Diana Almendariz (Wintun, Nisenan, Hupa, Yurok) uses fire to tend the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, and was a consultant and collaborator in the exhibit. Fire, she explained at the