In 2021, the Dixie Fire devastated Northern California’s Lost Sierra region, burning multiple towns to the ground and upending entire communities. It was one of an increasing number of mega wildfires in recent years, the result of climate change and 150 years of forest mismanagement. At the time, the Sierra Buttes Trails Stewardship was working on a massive trail network intended to infuse new life into the area’s struggling economy, which once relied on resource extraction such as mining and logging.
The Dixie Fire torched much of that trail system, but also provided an opportunity to reimagine how trails could be used as a tool for fire management, economic recovery, conservation and connection to the places they call home. Now SBTS is looking to practices of the past to create a path to a better future.
