SMW Supports the Karuk Tribe in State’s First Cultural Burning Agreement

March 13, 2025

Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger Partner Sara Clark has for several years supported Tribal efforts to put more “good fire” on the ground in California. For millennia, Indigenous North Americans have used fire for ceremonial purposes, to manage and produce food, fiber, and medicine, and to manage the landscape for protection against larger, uncontrolled wildfires. Much of California’s natural landscape is fire-dependent; cultural burns are one way to provide that fire in a safer, managed way.

Ms. Clark was part of an effort that resulted in state legislation passed last year that acknowledges and supports the sovereignty of federally recognized Tribes with respect to cultural burning. After a Tribe establishes an agreement with the California Natural Resources Agency and/or their local air quality officials, they can then make their own decisions about when, where, and how to burn.

The Karuk Tribe in Northern California, working with Ms. Clark and others, recently completed their agreement with the state agency, becoming the first Tribe in the state to do so. As described in the Los Angeles Times, the Tribe can now practice cultural burning when they choose, without having to obtain a burn permit and other paperwork for every burn. This development is expected to lead to better relationships between the Tribe, CAL FIRE and other state entities, as well as to healthier ecosystems and safer communities.

For more information, please contact Sara A. Clark.