Alliance team member Will Madrigal Jr., advisor Chief Wesley Ruise Jr., and Dr. Theresa Gregor spoke in a panel at the CAL FIRE Information & Education Officers Annual Statewide Conference on Wednesday March 1st about cultural burning and building Tribal relationships with CAL FIRE agencies.
Alliance team member Will Madrigal Jr., advisor Chief Wesley Ruise Jr., and Dr. Theresa Gregor spoke in a panel at the CAL FIRE Information & Education Officers Annual Statewide Conference on Wednesday March 1st about cultural burning. They talked about their own experiences with fire, barriers to cultural burning practices, the importance of building Tribal relationships within CAL FIRE agencies, media coverage of fire, and resources for the information officers to learn more and develop a deeper understanding of Indigenous fire and fire ecology.
A huge thank you to Will, Chief Ruise, and Dr. Gregor for their time and knowledge, and to the CAL FIRE team for hosting us at the conference, which took place on Kumeyaay lands.