There are some places that get a grip on your heart and stay with you for a lifetime. Sycan Marsh Preserve is one of those unforgettable places and has shown me a new perspective on fire. For me, Sycan is a place where fire is more than a tool to restore and manage landscapes. At Sycan, fire rekindles and grows relationships between people, and between people and place.
Sycan Marsh is part of the ancestral homelands of the Klamath Tribe; Sycan is currently owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In addition to its deep cultural significance, Sycan is a vast and diverse wetland bordered by upland forest. It is home to thousands of migratory birds, threatened species of fish, and a diversity of wildlife including elk and wolves.
TNC has been re-introducing fire to the landscape over the past several years to help restore and rejuvenate overgrown forests. The positive impacts of this hard work are visually striking – when the Bootleg wildfire ripped through the area in 2021, the areas previously treated with prescribed fire remain intact with robust stands of trees. Thousands of untreated acres are blackened dead trees. But the real magic at Sycan is not that prescribed fire is being used – the real magic is how it is accomplished.
I had the honor to visit twice this year – once to help with basic fire training for some of the Klamath Tribal Members, and again to help put good fire on the ground. During basic fire training I learned that the Klamath Tribe used to have a strong relationship with fire and used it to maintain the landscape and nurture plants for food and medicine. Their knowledge of fire has been lost over generations due to displacement from their lands and cultural suppression. Basic fire training provides access to participate in prescribed fire to begin to reclaim this connection and rebuild their knowledge of fire to pass through the generations. Lighting the first match was far more symbolic and culturally important than our normal objectives of fuels reduction or ecological benefits.
And the story gets richer from there. I’ve participated in hundreds of collaborative burns, but none quite like Sycan. Our prescribed fire team topped out at 74 people with individuals from five different organizations, including multiple research teams from across the U.S. (equipped with 5 drones and a helicopter to gather data), a smattering of brand-new fire practitioners (including the Klamath Tribal Members), six engines, and two camera crews. The complexity was high, but spirits were far higher. We were vulnerable in discussing delicate topics, made space for ceremony, cried together during briefing, and listened to the love flute played by one of the Tribal Members during briefing and before ignition. The focus was on people and community, not production. It felt inclusive, diverse, healing, and honest.
The spirit of collaboration and concentration on people and community is what makes fire at Sycan special. To me, this is what fire should be. Not about acres accomplished, but about human connection – to each other, to fire, and to the land.
Jennifer Mueller
Fire Management Officer
