Thea is a land tender who
weaves together good fire, forest stewardship, and ecological restoration to nurture resilience, health, and vitality for earth, climate, and all living beings.
Thea is Stewardship Manager with the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance where she facilitates the implementation of TERA's Indigenous-led stewardship projects through grant management, coordinating with Tribal partners, contributing to CEQA and NEPA processes, and supporting on the ground work in restoration, forest thinning, fuels reduction, and prescribed and cultural fire. Thea also coordinates TERA's EcoCultural Fire Program and Lake County TREX including landowner outreach, site visits, writing burn plans, organizing and implementing prescribed and cultural burns, and designing and co-teaching ecocultural fire trainings.
Thea is a current Fire Forward Fellow and a member of the Good Fire Alliance, building fireline leadership and working toward California Prescribed Burn Boss Certification in order to help return good fire to the millions of acres that desperately need to be intentionally burned to support ecological health and community resilience, and to contribute to a revitalization of good fire that honors and centers the traditions, knowledge, leadership, and sovereignty of the original stewards of this land.
Since 2022, Thea has worked in the Wildfire Resilience Program at Santa Rosa Junior College, co-leading hands-on student internships in ecological restoration, forestry, and prescribed burning, and teaching Fire Resilient Landscaping in Spanish and English.
Thea was on the cover of the 2022 "Good Fire” issue of Made Local Magazine, in a photo from a prescribed and cultural burn at Pepperwood Preserve. The feature article, Fighting Fire with Fire describes how Thea and other members of Monan's Rill have been shifting their relationship with fire following the 2020 Glass Fire.
Dancing With Fire Within the Climate Crisis
Video presentation for 2021 International Biodynamic Conference
The climate crisis brings extreme expressions of all four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—in earthquakes, landslides, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires. In 2020, a raging wildfire devastatingly burned the 414 acres of land in Northern California which I co-steward, killing most of the trees and wildlife, destroying homes and farm infrastructure, and dramatically changing the landscape. How do we understand this expression of the fire element, and how it relates to the land and our lives? How do we learn to dance with fire as we breathe with the climate crisis?
Living with Fire
Learning Journey on Patreon
In the fall of 2020, I came face to face with the climate crisis when the land where I live was severely burned by an extreme wildfire. As I returned to the blackened earth, charred trees, and ash and debris of flattened buildings, I was called to embark on a learning journey on living with fire.
-
Post-fire ecology and future prescribed burns: a visit with Fire Forward
We had the good fortune to spend a morning with the team from Audubon Canyon Ranch's Fire Forward program —Dr. Sasha Berleman, Brian Peterson, and Garrett Gradillas — walking the land to observe post-fire recovery of our diverse ecology, imagine future prescribed burns, and identify fun fire following plants.
-
New York Times Video: Meet the People Burning California to Save It
The New York Times has released a short documentary film about prescribed fire and burn bosses in California, “Meet the People Burning California to Save It” which includes footage from the prescribed burn inside the Healdsburg city limits that I participated in with Fire Forward and the Good Fire Alliance in May.