The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians have been restoring their oak savanna meadows, after decades of fire suppression and the removal of large, fire-adapted trees under federal management. In addition to land they bought from private owners, in 2018, the Tribe received 17,519 acres of land from the U.S. government for the Tribe to manage under its own authority. This came as part of the Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act; the bipartisan legislation sought to put tribal lands in trust in order to return the restoration of these lands — and the related economic activity and job development — to the Cow Creek Umpqua and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. The U.S. Forest Service’s fire suppression policies began in the early 1900s and contribute to the Tribe’s current struggle with wildfires that burn larger, hotter, and out of control. To reduce this risk — to both the Tribe and the nearby city of Roseburg — and to revitalize their cultural resources, Cow Creek Umpqua is blending Western science with traditional ecological knowledge to manage the landscape and safely reintroduce fire. Despite the challenges posed by climate change in finding suitable conditions for burning, outcomes from the managed areas so far are promising.

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