Don Hankins

Don Hankins is a distinguished professor of environmental geography at CSU Chico and the field director of the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. His extensive expertise encompasses pyrogeography, water stewardship, conservation, and climate resilience. He integrates academic insights with Indigenous knowledge to engage in transdisciplinary research and actions, including prescribed and cultural burns, ecocultural restoration, and policy development. Don collaborates with various organizations, agencies, and Indigenous entities across North America and Australia, earning international recognition for his innovative work in Indigenous fire stewardship and ecocultural restoration. His leadership includes co-founding the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network and Indigenous Stewardship Network, as well as serving on the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force executive committee. He is a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and a Grist 50 Fixer.

Plenary Speaker

Burning with Intent

Indigenous fire stewardship is a key ecocultural process that has shaped ecosystems for millennia and has enhanced soil, biodiversity, and resilience to climate change among other benefits. The removal of such processes from many places has degraded ecosystem health. Restoring Indigenous fire stewardship and related practices are critical to regenerating, maintaining, and sustaining ecosystem and cultural benefits spanning diverse places and applications. Applied studies spanning woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, rangelands, and policy illustrate the opportunities and challenges of this work.