KQED's The California Report Maidu Tribe Returns to Its Roots of Ancestral Fire
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Feb 12, 2026 Danielle Venton, KQED reporter who covered on-site Maidu cultural burning, walks through revival of ancestral fire practices. Short scenes show crews clearing invasives, tending coil meadows, and using fire to nurture food, fiber and medicine plants. Stories and recent wildfire finds reconnect people to stewardship and community-led burns bring hope.
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Returning Fire To Ancestral Meadow
- Megan Herrera and Maidu crews returned to ancestral land and prepared a meadow for burning to encourage useful plants.
- They removed invasive blackberries and worked with allied tribal groups and trained crews to steward the land with fire.
Restoring A Basket Weaver’s Garden
- Megan Herrera identified the meadow as a former basket weaver's garden with deergrass and yerba santa growing.
- The first target of the burn was invasive blackberry bushes overtaking the site.
Cultural Burning Shaped Resilient Landscapes
- Indigenous burning historically shaped landscapes to boost useful plants and limit severe wildfires.
- Loss of that practice from settlement and suppression contributed to today’s intensified fire behavior.