Planning: FIRE-PLAN: Exploring fire as medicine to revitalize cultural burning in the Upper Midwest

这一规划项目--火即药--旨在为土著土地管理从业人员开展培训和知识开发，以促进健康的生态系统和社区。几个世纪以来，土著人民使用火不仅是为了确保充足的重要资源的供应，如食物和纤维材料，而且还为了连接土地。欧洲的殖民改变了土著人民与火之间的密切联系。今天，许多土地管理机构使用处方火来实现几个目标，但这些努力对部落社区的文化价值往往有限。该项目首先试图了解在土著土地上焚烧的文化背景，以及土著人民在生态和文化目标方面的目标。在开展这项研究的过程中，该项目提供了知识、培训和资源，以安全有效地进行具有文化意义的烧伤。与Tallgras Prairie和Oak Savanna火灾科学联盟和美国农业部农业研究服务机构的密切联系确保了该地区大型利益相关者社区的广泛传播和使用。许多土著社区相信，重新控制他们的景观中的火将有助于治愈代代相传的损害。该项目为上中西部代表性不足的社区发展能力，以了解和实施文化焚烧本身。具体地说，与土著社区的长老和土地管理人员举行的倾听会议的目的是了解目前在整个中西部北部地区关于文化焚烧的已知和做法，并找出目前限制文化焚烧的障碍、知识差距和不发达的机会。在听取意见后，将向区域土著利益攸关方重点小组介绍共同主题，以确定教育和培训的优先事项，这些优先事项将在“火如药”项目的后续阶段加以处理。该小组以加拿大中西部和邻近地区的草原和林地的传统生态知识为基础，协助开发了一种土著火灾管理模式。该项目在项目开发、实施和传播的所有阶段都包括代表性不足的群体。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This planning project-- Fire as Medicine-- aims to develop training and knowledge development for Indigenous land management practitioners to promote healthy ecosystems and communities. Indigenous people used fire for centuries to not only ensure ample supplies of important resources, such as food and fiber materials, but also to connect with the land. European colonization changed the close connections between Indigenous people and fire. Today, many land management agencies use prescribed fire to achieve several goals, but these efforts often have limited cultural value for Tribal communities. This project first seeks to understand the cultural context of burning in Indigenous lands and what Indigenous peoples aim to achieve in terms of both ecological and cultural objectives. In developing this research the project provides knowledge, training, and resources to conduct culturally-meaningful burns that are safe and effective. Strong connections with the Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium and the USDA Agricultural Research Service ensure broad dissemination and use by a large stakeholder community in the region.Many Indigenous communities believe regaining control of fire in their landscapes will help heal damage passed down from generation to generation. This project develops capacity for underrepresented communities in the Upper Midwest to understand and implement cultural burning themselves. Specifically, listening sessions with elders and land managers in Indigenous communities aim to inform what is currently known and practiced with respect to cultural burning across the upper Midwest, and identify barriers, knowledge gaps, and under-developed opportunities that currently limit cultural burning. Following the listening sessions, common themes are presented to a focus group of regional Indigenous stakeholders to identify priorities for education and training to be addressed in subsequent phases of the Fire as Medicine project. The team facilitates the development of an Indigenous model of fire regimes based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge for the prairies and woodlands of the Upper Midwest and adjacent regions in Canada. The project includes under-represented groups in all stages of the project development, implementation, and dissemination.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.