**Happening Today:** The mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy, in partnership with Cal State East Bay Concord, CAL FIRE, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, and the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, will conduct a ceremonial cultural burn today, Sunday, June 28, on less than one acre at the Cal State East Bay Concord Center.
The burn is part of an ongoing effort to restore Indigenous fire stewardship practices while improving the health of local grasslands. The project is intended to reduce invasive grasses, improve soil quality, and encourage the growth of native plants traditionally used for food, medicine, and basketry.
Smoke may be visible near the CSU East Bay Concord Center, 4700 Ygnacio Valley Road, between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., depending on weather and air quality conditions. The invitation-only event begins with a private Ohlone ceremony, followed by a controlled cultural burn led by Ohlone firekeepers.
CAL FIRE and Contra Costa County Fire crews will be on-site throughout the event.
Officials say public safety is the top priority. The burn will be conducted under a strict burn plan with fire breaks, water supplies, and firefighting equipment in place. Fire crews will remain on-site until the area is fully secured.
Thank you so much to our friend Bob for the photo from the scene.
I like this. Call it a cultural burn and CARB can’t stop it or they are cultural racists. Lets have more cultural burns ever spring to prevent large fires in the summer and fall.
So, they can pour smoke all over the place, but don’t use your fireplace on Christmas and buy that “special’ gas to reduce pollution. I’m so over this BS.
Lol…I’ve never seen so many trigger words/phrases in an article regarding a simple controlled burn. Hahahahahaha…welcome to California, where even a controlled burn has to honor someone or something. Lord help us :/
I’m going to tell the Air Quality Board my backyard firepit identifies as a cultural burn.
I posted on this before… in CA about 2 % of these intentional burns get away and start large fires – why would you even chance it in this dry weather & fuel? I know – what could go wrong?
Fire crackers and Fireworks have been part of the United States of America’s Culture for almost 250 years.