Lee Klinger PhD

Starts With A Bang

@bigthink.com Fascinating article by Ethan. My question is if there is a significant amount of information exchanged in the energy of a system, or within the universe, would that flow change the total energy of the system? bigthink.com/starts-with-...

I can always count on you @wildwoods.bsky.social to point out my many errors.

As a climate scientist I acknowledge that climate change affects forest decline. However, I do believe that lack of traditional management plays a far greater role in the health and carbon balance of our forests than climate. We can solve this problem ecologically long before we change the climate!

But the article you share makes no mention of cultural burning, which would have mitigated old-growth forest decline. It states that the "carbon lost to trees dying and decaying outstripped the carbon gained by trees growing to replace them." Yes, mature (tended) trees store more C than young trees!

Let's get real folks. Is this climate crisis or a lack of forest management? How many trees in this photo would have been present 100 years ago. I only see one, meaning that all the younger trees are competing with and limiting the growth of the mature trees around them. Cultural burning is the way!

The Future of Conservation: Indigenous Ways Meet Western Science Collaboration and co-stewardship are bringing positive change across the country

Here is an excellent article explaining why I've been so focused these last 10 years on building a relationship with the local Esselen Tribe and helping steward their lands. My hope is that more of you will start forming a relationship with your local tribes. They have much to teach us! 🌎🍁🌲🔥🌳🧪🌐🪶🌱🦅

Upcoming Workshop: Tending Oaks with Fire Mimicry Hey fellow tree-huggers, especially those in SoCal, how would you like to learn about the health and care of our old-growth oak forests and what we can do to mitigate wildfires using the knowledge …

Many of you have requested this, so here it is. For the love of trees please share! 🌲❤️🌎🍁🔥🌳🧪🌐🪶🌱🦅

Yup! More than once. Even papers that claimed to have tested my methods, without contacting me or even actually testing my methods. This is why I'm an Independent Scientist. While still an academic, I'm free of the BS. I'm just applying my science and documenting the results.

Time for Tribes to Lead on Wildfire and Other Forest Management Priorities By Cody Desautel

“To make shared stewardship meaningful, tribes must be allowed to lead within our own homelands. This means entering into long-term agreements that don’t just invite tribal input but are built around tribal vision, tribal priorities, and tribal knowledge…
It also means investing in our people.”

The Role of Good Fire in Nourishing Boreal Berries — Boreal Conservation Summer in the Boreal Forest means an abundance of berries—blueberries, strawberries, cloudberries, raspberries, bunchberries, and more. These berries help sustain bears, moose, and other animals. Peop...

“You don’t go and burn all your berries at the same time,” @amycardinal.bsky.social explained. “Indigenous fire management is based on intervals—knowing when patches have been burned, which patches are getting overgrown. It’s not a one-time, one-off approach. It’s ongoing stewardship.”

Agency, Resistance, Persistence This month, the California History-Social Science Project invited Brianna Tafolla Rivière to write a guest post about bringing indigenous history into your classroom. Brianna is a historian and PhD ca...

This is good
@britafollariviere.bsky.social

Karuk Tribe’s Fire Stewardship Shines Amid Wildfires - Siskiyou News As wildfires tear through Northern California’s rugged terrain, the Karuk Tribe leads a quieter, deliberate fire on the other side of the mountain. In the Siskiyou region, their cultural fire practiti...

www.siskiyou.news/2025/07/10/k...

On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past For centuries, the Native people of North America used controlled burns to manage the continent's forests. In an e360 interview, ecologist Lori Daniels talks about the long history of Indigenous burni...

“There’s a school of thought that you can just put a fence around a forest and keep people out, and it will be protected, which is a very old-school view, a very colonial view. It comes from this idea that we came to a land that was ‘empty’ and there for the taking.”

Johnson Ranch Open Space Cultural Burn yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash Tribe brings back tinɨtʸu, "Good Fire" to ancestral homelands in a collaborative effort

Great story-map here. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a58f...

Massive oak tree

The Signing Oak - Windsor Great Park, Berkshire

Photo: Jeroen Philippona

Beautiful! Why is the base of the trunk white? Has limewash been applied?

Sprinkling limestone on farms may offer an unexpected climate win Farms commonly spread crushed limestone on fields to make the soil less acidic – and this practice can also help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Farms commonly spread crushed limestone on fields to make the soil less acidic. This practice is typically considered a source of emissions, but it may actually remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Save the date! #OakHealth #FireMimicry #TEK 🌎🍁🌲🔥🌳🪶🌱🦅🌰 www.smmfsc.org/oakworkshop

Introducing the Chumash Good Fire Project The new initiative is bringing back cultural burns to indigenous lands.

“hundreds of hours of interviews with fire ecologists, botanists, members of County Fire, policymakers, and more were compiled to make a comprehensive guide of considerations and plans to bring back Chumash cultural fire.” www.independent.com/2025/07/16/i...

I like Abuela Lucinda Vásquez Morales’s list of the purposes of burning: to protect, strengthen, teach, feed, heal. Seems a good motto. Also how she & Maria Meza say “how important it is that Indigenous Women be officially recognized for their role as the leaders in these processes and practices.”

Scanning electron microscopy photograph of the pyrogenic carbon. CREDIT: Debo Zhao

A study of a pyrogenic carbon deposit in the East China Sea finds evidence of a sharp increase in human fire use around 50,000 years ago, likely due to both population increases and the chilly temperatures associated with glacial periods. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This week, there were hundreds if not thousands of brown pelicans, cormorants and osprey feeding on bait fish in the Klamath River estuary and plume. This is another sign the river is healing in response to dam removal.

“The man didn’t have to cut a fireline with a Pulaski or a chainsaw; he didn’t have to work in a bulldozer cutting a dozer line; and he didn’t have to have air support to keep the fire out of the trees. The snow did the work.”

I was in British Columbia last month to learn about wildfires, which got me thinking about how we see the forests around us, and how it is not necessarily good thinking. 1/x

In Gitanyow territories, restorative fire heals the land and people: 'I think it’s a beautiful thing' - Indiginews A controlled burn demonstrates how bringing back ancient Indigenous fire practices helps restore cultural connections and strengthen communities while mitigating risk

“Cultural burning in spring after the snowmelt and in fall before the rains stimulates plant growth and opens the land to wildlife.” indiginews.com/features/on-...

The Importance of Teaching Fire - Educated by Nature Teaching fire provides a fantastic catalyst for the development of perseverance, teamwork, nature connection, responsibility, community and survival skills.

“When founded on the three pillars of respect (respect for self, others, and the environment), teaching fire provides a fantastic catalyst for the development of perseverance, patience, teamwork, nature connection, responsibility, community and survival skills.”
educatedbynature.com/term-program...

Understanding Fire as a Necessary Tool For thousands of years Indigenous Peoples have used fire to sustainably manage their lands, territories and natural resources. As ecological stewards, I...

“we burn to teach, to feed and to heal.” www.fao.org/indigenous-p...

Yurok Fire Department shows benefits of controlled burns at Blue Lake Rancheria event The Yurok Fire Department recently led a cultural burn demonstration near the Blue Lake Rancheria’s events center during the third annual Cultural Burn Seminar.

“Cultural burning, a tribal land management practice, was the central focus of the event, with sessions highlighting its use in reducing forest fuels, promoting healthy ecosystems and supporting traditional Indigenous practices like hunting and gathering.”
krcrtv.com/news/local/y...

Damn, I'm gonna miss this lively character!