Native America Calling: The looming wildfire crisis in the Arctic

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Native America Calling: The looming wildfire crisis in the Arctic

Monday, November 3, 2025

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The looming wildfire crisis in the Arctic

Researchers are documenting more frequent and longer-lasting wildfires in northern Alaska and Canada.

In fact, the increase of wildfires is a trend across the Arctic, as far as Norway and Siberia, driven by higher temperatures and dryer conditions. The trend has immediate threats to people’s homes and health.

Some tribes in Alaska and Canada also worry about the possibility of a long-term cataclysmic cycle of fires burning through vast stores of peat, producing uncountable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

Tune in to get a look at the latest research and learn what concerned Alaska Native tribes and other Indigenous stakeholders are doing to prepare.

Guests on Native America Calling

Edward Alexander (Gwich’in), co-councilor for Gwich’in Council International

Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson (Métis), senior fire advisor for the Indigenous Leadership Initiative and board member of the International Association of Wildland Fire

Malinda Chase (Deg Hit’an Athabaskan), tribal liaison for the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center under the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the land manager for her village in Anvik, Alaska

The Aniralik Fire (#204) and New Cottonwood Fire merged and burned as the New Cottonwood Fire in Alaska in June 2025. Photo: Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service