018: Day 2: TALK STORY: From Past Lessons to Future Innovations— Climate Resilience and Land Management in the Age of Megafires

How to Disaster

2024 WILDFIRE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

Episode Description:

“The solutions are creating those resilient landscapes.” —Marco Bey

“It's going to come back to you. Is going to come back to how prepared you are? —how prepared can we all be to face these events? We need to center ourselves in that Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge so that we can make good choices.” —Belinda Brown

Fire is not the enemy— it's a vital part of healthy, fire-adapted ecosystems. When applied thoughtfully, fire can restore balance, promote biodiversity, and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Indigenous communities have long understood fire's role as a land management tool, but this knowledge has been lost over centuries of misguided policies.

Marco Bey and Belinda Brown are working to revive this traditional ecological wisdom through their organization, the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. As leaders in the movement to reintegrate good fire into Western land management practices, they partner with tribes, agencies, and communities to build resilience across millions of acres.

This powerful discussion unpacks the critical importance of centering indigenous knowledge, the challenges of accessing resources for tribal lands, and innovative solutions for creating fire-adapted, climate-resilient landscapes. Listen now to learn how you can support this vital work in your community.

Connect with After The Fire USA:

• Website: https://afterthefireusa.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfterTheFireUSA
• X: https://twitter.com/AfterTheFireUSA
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterthefireusa/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atf3r
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuTefxZgWUJkDVoZGZQpxgQ

Highlights:

• 03:32 The Severity of Wildfires
• 07:16 Bringing Aboriginal Knowledge Back Into the Land
• 11:41 Forest Resiliency
• 14:40 Know Your Community
• 16:47 The Question of Federal Access

Meet the Moderator

👩🏻‍💼 Lisa Micheli, Executive Board Member, After the Fire USA

Dr. Micheli joined Sonoma County’s Pepperwood Foundation in October of 2009 as its inaugural Executive Director and now serves as the organization’s President and CEO. She brings more than 30 years of experience applying her technical, policy, and fundraising expertise to the design and implementation of ecological restoration, research, and education programs. She started her career at the US Environmental Protection Agency and then completed her graduate studies at UC Berkeley as a NASA Earth Systems Research Fellow in 2000. She now focuses her research on relationships between climate, watershed health, and biodiversity and has published numerous peer-reviewed studies on river restoration, climate adaptation, and community-based approaches to biodiversity conservation.

Dr. Micheli specializes in facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations focused on using relevant research to craft collective solutions to today’s most pressing landscape conservation challenges. She serves as the co-chair of Pepperwood’s Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative (TBC3), a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Bay Area climate adaptation research initiative, with Dr. David Ackerly, Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. She also chairs the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve team of the international Large Landscape Conservation Peer Network facilitated by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. She has been recognized as a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, a Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation Environmental Leader, a Bay Nature Institute Local Hero for Environmental Education, and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Society for Conservation Biology. Dr. Micheli serves as a director on After The Fire board and as a science advisor to the Sempervirens Fund, the Chile-California Conservation Network, the Bay Area Open Space Council, and the Water Research Foundation

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamicheli/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.micheli1

Meet the Panel:

👨🏻‍💼Marko Bey, Executive Director and Founder, Lomakatsi Forest Restoration Project

Executive Director and Lomakatsi’s Co-Founder, Marko oversees all aspects of the organization’s efforts, working in close coordination with the Board of Directors. Marko’s central focus is on program and organizational development, project procurement, planning, and operations. His other responsibilities include grant writing and fundraising, technical planning, and the management of cooperative agreements, stewardship agreements, and contracts.

Lomakatsi’s ten regional ecosystem restoration programs and associated workforce initiatives are a primary result of his work. Most essential has been his leadership in the orchestration and formation of collaborative partnerships — partnerships that are strengthened by a wide variety of stakeholders, including federal and state agencies, Indian tribes, organizations, private landowners, and community members.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-bey-6870781a/

👩🏻‍💼Belinda Brown, Tribal Partnerships Director, Lomakatsi Forest Restoration Project

Belinda serves as Lomakatsi’s Tribal Partnership Director and operates within the framework of Lomakatsi’s Tribal Partnership Program and associated initiatives. Belinda works closely with Lomakatsi’s Executive Director and staff leadership to serve tribal communities in their efforts to restore forests and watersheds on tribal trust and ancestral lands. She serves as a community liaison, engaging with tribal elders, tribal councils, cultural resource monitors, and tribal department staff. Belinda also works to establish and promote effective working relationships among the tribal community, Lomakatsi, and federal agency and non-profit partners.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belinda-brown-130b832b/

Connect with Lomakatsi Restoration Project:

• Website: https://lomakatsi.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lomakatsi/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lomakatsi_restoration_project/