Paul Burow (Yale), “The Moral Ecology of a Forest: Caring for Trees in North America’s Changing Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands” (Yale Peabody Museum)

How does environmental change impact the moral ecology of forests? And what do these changes mean for the cultural values of Indigenous and rural communities that rely on them? In the southwestern United States, Pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) is threatened by drought, wildfire, and clear-cutting. These pine nut trees, also known as tubapi, are critically important for Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau.

 

Yale Ph.D. candidate Paul Burow will discuss how Numu (Paiute) people care for the trees within the shifting ecology driven by land use practices and climate change in the Great Basin of California and Nevada. He explores what these changes mean for Pine Nut Nation–the complex of people, plants and animals tied to forestlands in the arid Southwest–and how this offers a model of ethical collaboration and diverse values to sustain life in the Anthropocene.

 

This event will include live, English captioning. Click here to register.