Indigenous communities turn to prescribed burns to protect land from wildfires

As the threat of wildfires continues to ramp up, In‐ digenous communities in northern Alberta are trying to mitigate the risk by burning stretches of driedout lands.

Prescribed burning isn't new for Indigenous commu‐ nities; it's a practice that dates back generations to protect lands from the threat of wildfires and spur the re‐ growth of trees, plants and grasses.

"[Burns] rejuvenate the land, helps get the medicines back, burns off the invasive species of plants and brings back the natural habitat," said Shane Bair, director of emergency operations and fire chief for Beaver Lake Cree Nation, 215 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

Bair, a member of Musko‐ day First Nation in Saskatchewan, used to work for Saskatchewan First Na‐ tions Emergency Manage‐ ment and was part of the We

Are Fire program, which taught the practice of tradi‐ tional prescribed burns.

He said traditional burn‐ ing is a practice that has been lost to many Indige‐ nous communities in Alberta.

"Our knowledge keepers are starting to become few and far between, and so we're losing that part of our history and our traditions," said Bair.

West of Beaver Lake Cree Nation, traditional burns are also done at East Prairie Métis Settlement, a commu‐ nity that was ravaged by wild‐ fires in 2023.

"They've been doing pre‐ scribed burns in the settle‐ ment probably for maybe 10 years or more … but prior to that, [the] settlement used to do their own burning as soon as it dried up," said Raymond Supernault, chairman for the East Prairie Métis Settlement.

"Settlement members would burn their fields or burn their yard so that noth‐ ing like what we went through last year would happen."

Supernault said wildfires caused his community to lose about 20 homes in 2023, which could have been way worse had they not stepped in to do controlled burns.

"For 24 hours straight we were fighting fires around our homes," he said. "That was hectic."

Prepare land and team for wildfires

Beaver Lake Cree Nation and East Prairie Métis Settle‐ ment have yet to be hit by fire this year but are working with Alberta Wildfire to burn stretches of land that are at risk of catching fire.

Last week, Beaver Lake Cree Nation had a control burn on their cultural grounds, a stretch of land that Bair said was dry and needed to be burned off.

"The conditions were right and fair [and] beautiful for burning," he said.

"They went in and did sec‐ tion by section and got rid of the hazard for us."

The Beaver Lake Cree Na‐ tion fire department launched in December 2022, starting with four volunteer firefighters. Within months, the community was hit by one of the worst wildfire sea‐ sons in the province's history, according to Alberta Wildfire.

Bair said 22 homes were evacuated in Beaver Lake Cree Nation, which caused a spike in volunteers. The fire department went from hav‐ ing four volunteers to close to 20.

"I keep telling them … you guys are the modern-day warriors of First Nations, you're risking your life to pro‐ tect your community, protect your people and make sure that everyone gets to go home safely," said Bair.

The team is now learning about prescribed burns from Alberta Wildfire, which Bair said gives his team a chance to learn how fires move, from the inception stage to an ac‐ tive grass fire.

Working with province The Government of Alber‐ ta works with communities across the province to identi‐ fy areas that could benefit from a prescribed burn, but sometimes elements in the environment can prevent fur‐ ther burns.

Bair said the burns in Beaver Lake Cree Nation had to be cut short because of high winds, and the grounds were too dry. Some commu‐ nities - like East Prairie Métis Settlement - would like to see more areas of their commu‐ nity burned, Supernault said.

"They're here and burning probably a day or two and it doesn't work for my commu‐ nity," he said.

He said the conditions in East Prairie Métis Settlement this year are extremely dry and worrisome. In 2023, Su‐ pernault said his community had to step up and burn stretches of dry land on their own because so many fires were tearing through the province.

"You can't always depend on Forestry to come save you … we have to do this our‐ selves, we have to save our own community," he said.

CBC News reached out to Alberta Wildfire for comment and did not hear back in time for publication.