Restorative Fires for Landscape Resilience

When Richard Hamilton began training in forest restoration a year and a half ago, he knew instantly this wasn’t just a job. It was a calling.

“This isn’t something I picked up for a paycheck or to pad my resume. This is what I’m meant to do,” said Hamilton, a member of The Klamath Tribe, whose ancestors lived in balance with the land of the southern Cascade Range for generations. “My people have always had an agreement with the forests — we take care of them, and they take care of us.”

Now a crew boss for the grassroots nonprofit Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Hamilton leads efforts to restore forests, enhance wildlife habitat and cultural resources, and strengthen ecosystems against catastrophic wildfires.

Over the past 30 years, Lomakatsi has helped develop and lead collaborative restoration initiatives in partnership with Tribal Nations, state and federal agencies, NGOs, and other partners to restore a wide range of complex forest communities and wildlife habitats across Oregon and California, while simultaneously reducing the threat of severe wildfire. By treating 35,000 acres annually and training 60+ fire resilience workers a year, they create hundreds of living wage jobs and support rural economies by delivering restoration byproducts, including small diameter trees and biomass material, to local mills.

Their staff bring a range of disciplines together — from Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge to the latest advances in Western science — to restore balance back to the landscapes we cherish and rely upon.

The Cost of Protecting Ecosystems

Healthy communities depend on healthy ecosystems. They provide clean air, fresh water, food security, and help regulate the climate through carbon sequestration. Wildfires are putting the health of our ecosystems and, in turn, our communities at risk.

Wildfires in the U.S. are occurring with increased frequency and severity. In 2024, there were 64,897 wildfires that burned 8,924,884 acres, almost two times the size of New Jersey. The total number of fires and acres burned were both above the five and 10-year averages.

Anthropogenic fires have been used by Indigenous Peoples for millennia to manage ecosystems and maintain healthy forests. The practice uses low-intensity, controlled fires to enhance ecosystem health, prevent catastrophic wildfires, and sustain biodiversity. These burnings play a key role in cultivating medicinal plants, edible species, and useful fibers while honoring cultural and spiritual connections to the land.

“As an aboriginal person living within our ancestral territory in what is now called California, we have been using fire since time immemorial to tend the landscape, increasing cultural beneficial and traditional subsistence resources,” said Belinda Brown, an enrolled member of the Kosealekte Band of the Pit River Tribe and Lomakatsi’s Tribal Partnerships Director. “Anthropogenic fire shaped the forests and watersheds, and when our people and that integral practice were removed, we’re now dealing with megafires, loss of life, habitats and homes, insects and disease, and other issues.”

Ecological forest restoration, including returning fire to the landscape, is a critical tool for reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire but requires significant funding to address current needs. Blue Forest, a nonprofit conservation finance organization, and its innovative Forest Resilience Bond supported by The Rockefeller Foundation through grant funding and Program Related Investments, eases cash flow constraints for restoration organizations, ensuring organizations like Lomakatsi can continue their crucial work.

Blue Forest’s Forest Resilience Bond (FRB) is a conservation finance model designed to add new revenue streams to fund forest restoration, and increase cost-sharing. The FRB aligns resources, expertise, and interests of local stakeholders, investors, and industries that benefit from well-managed forests and watersheds like, government agencies, water supply utilities, hydropower companies, and other public and private entities. Private sector investors targeting projects with a positive environmental impact invest in the FRB, enabling upfront funding for the restoration work.

“The wildfire crisis is endangering lives, livelihoods, and entire communities, demanding immediate action,” said Carli Roth, Principal, Innovative Finance, The Rockefeller Foundation. “Blue Forest has developed an innovative model that unites public agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and private entities like utility companies, leveraging their expertise to drive ecological restoration and strengthen forest resilience. Ultimately, the model is simple but the potential positive impact for our forests and communities is significant.”

Adding Forest Resilience Jobs

“Controlled burning is not controversial anymore. Everyone who is practicing forest resilience believes we need good fire on the ground,” said Zach Knight, Blue Forest’s CEO who left Wall Street trading floors behind to pursue his passion for environmental investing and co-founded Blue Forest in 2015.

“We need to use that fire safely, of course,” Knight said. “This means we are going to need a lot more practitioners of fire, and a lot more training. We don’t have enough people who know how to work in the woods. What we want in the end is more acres of forest treated to become fire-resilient.”

Working in the woods includes controlled burn practitioners and contractors, individuals who plan restoration projects, and those who conduct prep and layout in the forest before treatments begin. These foresters are deeply knowledgeable about local ecology and relevant federal and state law. They use that knowledge to determine exactly which treatments will help achieve landscape resilience and where to apply them. These pre-treatment activities are critical for enabling the implementation of restoration work, creating a ripple effect throughout the restoration supply chain economy.

To date, capital provided through FRBs has supported implementation partners in sustaining nearly 200 forest restoration-related jobs.

“As the lead fiscal organization on multiple landscape-scale restoration projects in the Rogue Basin FRB geography in southwest Oregon, Lomakatsi is financially responsible for hundreds of boots on the ground every day,” said Marko Bey, Lomakatsi Executive Director. “With project funding Lomakatsi and partners has secured from over a dozen federal, state, and private philanthropic sources, all with differing reimbursement timelines, the FRB with Blue Forest is invaluable to allowing us to operate at scale, while ensuring we are able to pay staff and contractors on time until we are reimbursed for the funding Lomakatsi has secured.”

Communities, Science, and Partnership

In 2018, Blue Forest launched its first conservation finance FRB in the Tahoe National Forest, the Yuba I FRB, which catalyzed the formation of the North Yuba Forest Partnership — a forest collaborative that includes a local tribe as a founding member, and led to the second FRB – the Yuba II FRB. Recognizing the essential role of Indigenous partners in restoration efforts, Blue Forest launched its third FRB with Lomakatsi.

Since then, Blue Forest has expanded its Indigenous partnerships program. In 2024, it helped Indigenous partners secure $2.65 million in new funding by providing technical assistance, including funder introductions, grant writing, and letters of support.

“We are working toward shifting our science to be rooted in both groundbreaking Western research and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge built over thousands of years of practice,” Knight said.

“Western science is valuable. But it often overlooks the unique rhythms of each individual landscape, which are best understood by those who have lived there for generations,” added Saraya Hamidi, a Blue Forest Indigenous Partnership Manager and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Wiyaka Bennett, of Karuk descent, joined Blue Forest in November to join Hamidi in supporting Indigenous partnerships. She has personally participated in many cultural and prescribed burns.

“We are at a crucial moment of truly listening to our tribal partners,” Bennett said. “We’re not on the ground making the plans. We’re trusting the people who live there and manage the land. This challenges us to see forest restoration not just as a technical solution, but as a relationship.”

As of 2024, Blue Forest has deployed over $20 million in funds to landscape restoration projects through FRBs, catalyzing over $40 million of funding to landscapes, directly protecting 28,250 acres in Washington, Oregon, and California.

When Hamilton started his training in forest resilience practices, he was struck by the level of disease in timberlands that hadn’t been revitalized with good fire. “Looking at a stand of trees from a distance is nothing like seeing them up close,” he said. “From the road, they looked beautiful, but up close, you could see many were rotting at the base, weakened by parasites or contaminated soil.”

Hamilton said he is proud to tell his three children, ages 2, 7, and 8, “My job is to go out and take care of the trees.”

“When they grow up,” Hamilton said, “I want them to see the mountains and forests flourishing. And I want them to think, ‘My dad helped take care of that.”