Fire has played a leading role in the ecology of the North American West for hundreds of millennia and has been a primary force in the evolution and composition of much of California’s vegetation and flora. The restorative effects of burning were long recognized and promoted by California’s indigenous cultures, who actively shaped much of California’s living landscapes through prescriptive burning over thousands of years.

This presentation by botanist Peter Warner will provide a brief survey of some of the benefits wrought by recent Sonoma County fires, in particular the renaissance of flora and vegetation achieved through burning. In celebration of these living testimonies to life’s resiliency, we may yet re-learn and apply the lessons from ages past.