Location: Event takes place in Yosemite Valley
Spend your Friday afternoon exploring the science and stories shaping Yosemite today. The Yosemite Conservancy Stewardship Series offers a unique opportunity to learn from experts through short, topic-focused programs inspired by donor-funded projects. Each two-hour session highlights a different area of research, restoration, or stewardship — from meadow recovery and sequoia ecology to wildlife conservation and beyond.
For thousands of years, Native people cultivated a relationship between fire and land that created the Yosemite we fell in love with — grand vistas, towering widely-spaced pines and oaks, and extensive meadows so beautiful they inspired the creation of national parks. Cultural burning promoted biodiversity, resilience, and provided food, medicine, and materials for thriving communities.
But when Native people were removed from Yosemite and their fires extinguished, everything changed. Over a century of fire suppression, combined with climate change, has led to overgrown forests, catastrophic wildfires, and the loss of many biological and cultural features that once defined this landscape. The solution? Bringing cultural fire back.
During this program, you’ll learn about “Little Fires Everywhere” — a groundbreaking project supported by Yosemite Conservancy that’s returning traditional ecological knowledge and cultural burning to Yosemite Valley. You’ll discover how a dedicated fire and fuels crew is preparing the landscape for numerous small, prescribed fires (0.1 to 10 acres), protecting priority values like archaeological sites, black oak groves, and meadows, and creating conditions where fire can be used safely and effectively.
Most importantly, you’ll hear how the National Park Service is partnering with local Tribal communities to return cultural burning to cultural fire practitioners — restoring not just the landscape, but the relationship between people and land that created Yosemite’s beauty in the first place.
Join us to explore how little fires are creating big change — and how your support is helping restore resilience, biodiversity, and the awe-inspiring landscape that makes Yosemite extraordinary.
