These stories may also convey the penalties for not following the laws of the land, as the Buttes do, or as depicted in Aboriginal fire paintings.Early white settlers noted that in the autumn or at the onset of the rainy season, Indigenous people would burn to clean up landscape to remove accumulated woody fuels on the ground and facilitate the growth of luxuriant grasses and herbs.
After another devastating year, it’s clear that Californians can’t keep trying to “fight” wildfires. Instead, they need to accept it as their new reality.