Cultural Burning Practices in California

Join Richard Bugbee to learn about the significance of Indigenous Cultural Burning Practices in California. Mr. Bugbee will describe the landscape and practices of cultural burns and describe his work using his Ethnobotanical and Ethnoecological knowledge to reintroduce Cultural Burns and other traditional practices to land management agencies to teach them how to steward the land.  

Richard Bugbee is Payoomkawish (Juaneño/Luiseño) from northern San Diego County. He has ties with the Kumeyaay, Mununjali Yogumbeh, and Te Ahwina. Richard grew up near the Kumeyaay village site of Kosa’aay, now known as Old Town San Diego CA. Not only is he an Instructor of Kumeyaay Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology at Cuyamaca College through Kumeyaay Community College, he is also the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS), on the boards of Indigenous Regeneration (Mata’Yuum), Climate Science Alliance, and Inter-Tribal Fire Stewardship. Richard has been learning traditional plant uses of southern California and the Kumeyaay language from Jane Dumas, a Kumeyaay Elder from Jamul Indian Village from 1980 to 2014. Richard was the ethnobotanist for the Traditional Indian Health Program through Riverside-San Bernardino Indian Health providing information on the interactions between traditional plant and pharmaceutical medicines. Richard teaches indigenous material cultures and traditional plant uses of southern California at many museums, botanical gardens, and reservations, and is an instructor for summer cultural programs for several Kumeyaay tribes. His goal is to use knowledge to serve as a bridge that connects the wisdom of the Elders with today’s youth. He is currently using his Ethnobotanical and Ethnoecological knowledge AKA Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK) to reintroduce Cultural Burns and other traditional practices to land management agencies to teach them how to steward the land. Hunwut Nganga Pe'naxanish 'Iipaa Womii Namuul'shu'ii

Closed captioning is available for this trainoing. For questions about accessibility, please email training@communitynatureconnection.org.

Location: Online

Instructor: Richard Bugbee

*Must be 18 and over for this training